LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Shelf .C73 

PRESENTED BY \ ', 

I 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 

I 9—178 



THE SELECT WORKS OF GEORGE COMBE. 

ISSUED BY AUTHORITY OF THE COMBE TRUSTEES. 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



THE SELECT WORKS OF GEORGE COMBE. 



The Series Includes: — 

The Constitution of Man. 
Moral Philosophy. 
Science and Religion. 
Discussions on Education. 
&c. &c. 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY; 



OB. 



THE DUTIES OF MAN, CONSIDERED IN HIS 
INDIVIDUAL, DOMESTIC, SOCIAL, 
AND BELIGIOUS CAPACITIES. 



by / 

GEORGE COMBE. 



CASSELL and COMPANY, Limited: 
LONDON, PARIS & MELBOURNE. 

THE CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
NEW YORK. 
1893. 
L 




1899 



PREFACE. 



George Combe's "Moral Philosophy" is the sequel and 
complement to his "Constitution of Man." It does not 
profess to be a systematic treatise on ethics, dealing either 
with the doctrine of utility on the one hand, or with the 
theory of abstract virtue on the other. Its less ambitious, 
but not less useful, aim is to show how the principles of 
human nature developed in the author's " Constitution of 
Man JJ may be applied to the conduct of life — by man as an 
individual, and as a domestic, a social, and a religious being. 
In this, as in the former work, the point on which the 
author mainly insists is the moral and religious obligation 
of the natural laws as a revelation of the Divine will, which 
cannot be disregarded with impunity. He shows, in par- 
ticular, how entirely his teaching coincides with that of 
Christianity, and how unreasonable it is to regard the 
apostles of natural science as inimical to Divine truth as 
revealed in the Bible. Nothing, indeed, is more striking 
than the reverent and truly pious spirit in which the 
argument is conceived and conducted. There is not one of 
the statements in the Lectures, which were denounced as 
impious, and even atheistical, when they were delivered, 
that is not now accepted as a mere commonplace, and as a 
social and religious axiom. 

In his original Preface— written in 1840— the author gave 
the following account of the origin and the objects of the 
work : — 

" In 1832 an "Association was formed by the industrious 
classes of Edinburgh for obtaining instruction in useful and 
entertaining knowledge by means of lectures, to be delivered 
in the evenings after business hours. These lectures were 
designed to be popular with regard to style and illustration, 
but systematic in arrangement and extent. One evening 
in each week was devoted to Astronomy, two nights to 
Chemistry ; and I was requested to deliver a course on 
Moral Philosophy, commencing in November, 1835, and 
proceeding on each Monday evening till April, 1836. The 



vi 



PREFACE. 



audience amounted to between five and six hundred persons 
of both sexes. 

" In twenty lectures, addressed to such an audience, only a 
small portion of a very extensive field of science could be 
touched upon. It was necessary also to avoid as much as 
possible abstract and speculative questions, and to dwell 
chiefly on topics simple, interesting, and practically useful. 
These circumstances account for the introduction of many 
local topics of illustration, and of such subjects as Suretyship, 
Arbitration, Guardianship, and some others, not usually 
treated of in works on Moral Philosophy ; and also for the 
occasional omission of that rigid application of the principles 
on which the work is founded to the case of every duty, 
which would have been necessary in a purely scientific 
treatise. These principles, however, although not always 
stated, are never intentionally departed from. 

" The lectures were reported by one of my hearers in an 
Edinburgh newspaper, and excited some attention. I did 
not consider them worthy of being presented to the public 
as a separate work ; but they were reprinted in a small 
duodecimo volume in the United States. The edition was 
speedily purchased by the American public. Encouraged 
by that indication of approval, I published the entire 
lectures in Edinburgh in 1840, with such additions and 
improvements as they appeared to stand in need of7 J 

Edinburgh, 1893. 



CONTENTS. 

LECTURE I. 

THE FOUNDATIONS OF MOEAL SCIENCE. 

PAGE 

Two questions — What actions are virtuous? and, What consti- 
tutes certain actions virtuous ? ...... 1 

Contradictory answers to the second question .... 2 

We must study the functions of the Mental Faculties ... 4 
The Faculties the gifts of the Creator . . * ... .7 

Adaptation, proof of a controlling Mind 8 

Virtue consists in accordance with the dictates of the Faculties . 10 

Three theories of the foundations of Virtue 11 

Distinction between Virtue and Merit .12 

The Intellectual Faculties exercised in examining Nature . . 14 

LECTURE II. 

THE SANCTIONS OF THE MOEAL LAWS. 

Rewards and punishments established by God . . . .15 
Are these acts of special Providence ? . . . . . .16 

Are our duties prescribed in Scripture ? 16 

The reality of the Divine government 17 

Justice is executed in this life 18 

Moral offences confounded with violations of Physical Laws . 18 
Moral off ences confounded with violations of Organic Laws . . 19 
Benevolent object of the punishment of these violations . .21 

Action of the Moral and Mental Faculties 22 

Example from Acquisitiveness 22 

" The hand of the diligent maketh rich' ' ..... 25 
The justice of Divine government 27 

LECTURE III. 

MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 

The views of Bishop Butler 29 

Reason better than precept 30 

Interdependence of the Physical, the Organic, the Moral, and the 

Intellectual Laws .30 

Duties prescribed to Man as an individual . . . . . .32 

Obedience to the Divine Laws the prime requisite . . . 32 
The first duty of Man, to acquire Knowledge . . . . 33 

Inutility of the instruction hitherto given 34 



viii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Contrast between the study of Heathen Mythology and the study 

of God's Laws 35 

Neglect of the Natural Laws by religious teachers . . .35 
The duty of acquiring Knowledge paramount . . . .36 

The Old and the New Philosophy 37 

The duty of instructing others . 38 

The tree known by its fruits 40 

LECTURE IV. 

PRESERVING HEALTH A DUTY. 

Calamities from infringement of the Organic Laws . . .41 
Proportionate activity of all the Organs necessary . . .42 
Lesson from the habits of the Lower Animals . . . .43 

Labour indispensable to Health 45 

Dangers arising from Ignorance 47 

Dangers arising from Recklessness 48 

Neglect of God's Book of Nature 50 

Amusements necessary to Health 50 

Distinction between their Use and their Abuse . . . .52 

LECTURE V. 

MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 

Origin of the Domestic Affections 54 

Marriage a Natural Institution of Divine origin . . . .54 

Age at which Marriage is proper 55 

Near relations in blood should not marry 56 

The parents should possess sound constitutions . . . .58 

Wise Marriage Laws of German States 59 

The parties should be adapted to each other 59 

Practical value of instruction in the Natural Laws . . .61 

LECTURE VI. 

POLYGAMY AND DIVORCE. 

Polygamy not a Natural institution ...... 62 

Divorce and the Law of Nature . . . . . .63 

Paley's argument a grand fallacy 65 

Effects of ill-assorted marriages on the children . . . .66 
Dissolution by mutual consent should be permitted . . .67 

LECTURE VII. 

THE DUTIES OE PARENTS. 

Observance of the Natural Laws 68 

Malthus's Law of Population . . . . . . .68 

Sadler's objections to it 70 

Parents bound to preserve the health and life of their offspring . 71 
Effects of ignorance and negligence of the Organic Laws . .72 



CONTENTS. ix 

FAGE 

Difference between the uncertain and the unascertained . . 73 
Difference between structural and functional disease . . .74 
The latter as much as the former a result of violating the Organic 

Laws 75 

Prevalence of ignorance of the Organic Laws . . .76 

Moral obligation of these Laws .77 

Duty of parents to educate their children 77 

The objects and the means of education . . . , .78 
Duty of parents to equip their children for active life . . .80 
Duty of parents to inculcate sound views of social life . . .82 

Changes made by the Reform Act 83 

Material provision for children . 84 

Objection to hereditary titles .85 

How wealth should be dist:ibuted 85 

Evil of entails 85 

Parents have rights as well as duties 86 

The Moral and Intellectual powers of children should be appealed 

to 87 



LECTUBE VIII. 

MAN AS A SOCIAL BEING/, 

Theories of the origin of Society 89 

Social life results from the spontaneous action of Man's Faculties 91 

Industry Man's first social duty 92 

Labour a source of pleasure 93 

Is labour degrading ?......,.. 94 

The division of labour indispensable to Man's welfare . . .94 
Gradations of social condition Divine institutions , . . .96 
Superior skill the result of Knowledge ...... 97 



LECTURE IX. 

THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 

Why are the immoral and the indolent sometimes successful ? . 98 
Mankind influenced chiefly by the Selfish Faculties . . .99 
Reasons for expecting improvement in the condition of Society . 101 
Man as savage and pastoral . . . , , , , .101 
The Agricultural and Commercial stages . . . . .102 
Tendency of Society to reward virtue . . . . , .104 

Artificial impediments to this 105 

Hereditary titles and entails 106 

Aristocratic feeling in the United States 106 

Is Society destined to advance ? 103 

Two views of Human Nature— the one Selfish, the other Moral 

and Intellectual 109 

Supremacy of Selfishness , . .112 

Effects of keen competition . . . . . , . .113 
The present state of British society unsatisfactory. , , .114 



CONTENTS. 



LECTURE X. 



EFFECTS OF THE SELFISH SYSTEM. PAGE 

Disadvantages of the Division of Labour 115 

Consequent limitation of the field of Benevolence . . . .116 

The state of the Irish peasantry 117 

Individual aggrandisement inconsistent with the precepts of 
Christianity 118 

LECTURE XI. 

MAN'S CAPACITY FOE IMPROVEMENT. 

Possibility of Man ascending in the scale of Morality, Intelligence, 

and Religion 120 

Grounds for Hope- " . . .121 

Schemes of Plato, More, Owen, and others 121 

Reasons for believing in Man's progressive improvement . . 122 

Sufferings due to ignorance and poverty 124 

Enjoyment increases with Ejiowledge 125 

Difficulties created by competition 126 

Connection between Public Welfare and Private Interest . .127 
Practical advantage of attending to this relation . . . .129 
The right use of time for Public and for Private ends . , .130 

The equalisation of enjoyment . 132 

Duty of maintaining the poor 132 

The causes of pauperism, and the means of removing them . .133 

LECTURE XII. 

PAUPERISM AND CRIME, 

The evils of Intemperance 135 

Education the best remedy 136 

Should the poor be provided for by Society? 137 

The higher Faculties must be brought into play . . . .138 

How should the poor be provided for ? 138 

Waste of money on wars , 139 

The treatment of Criminals 140 

Different combinations of the Faculties 141 

How should habitual Cri mi nals be treated ? . . . . 142 
Failure of the primitive treatment . . . . * . 143 
Habitual Criminals should be treated as patients . . . .144 
The Old Philosophy and the New 145 

LECTURE XIII. 

THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 

The case of Criminals in whom the Moral and the Intellectual " 

Faculties are active 146 

Influence of external cncumstances ...... 147 

God acts through the Laws of Organisation . . , , .147 
Effects of training and education . . . . , , .149 

How should the fallen be recovered ? . , , . . .150 
The true object of Criminal Law . . # , . , .151 
Treatment of Criminals under confinement . . , 152 



CONTENTS. 3d 
LECTURE XIV. 

PUNISHMENT OE EEFOEMATION? PAGE 

The principle of Revenge wrong . 154 

The protection of Society and the reformation of the Criminal, 

the proper objects of punishment 156 

Effects of the humane treatment in Germany . . . .158 

And in France . . 159 

Failure of the treadmill . . .161 

Superiority of the American penitentiaries . , • . .162 

Their deficiencies 162 

The Silent System inferior to the Social System . . . .163 

LECTURE XV. 

MINOE SOCIAL DUTIES. « 

Guardianship • , .165 

Examples 166 

Duties of Guardians 167 

Suretyship . . . . 169 

Necessary precautions 170 

Arbitrators and Jurymen 173 

The difficulties of Arbitrators 176 

LECTURE XVI. 

GOVEENMENT. 

Various theories of the origin of government 178 

The rational view , , .179 

All government flows from the subjects . . . . . .180 

Distinction between Liberty and Independence .... 181 

Conditions of Independence 182 

Conditions of National Liberty 183 

Examples of the Swiss and the Dutch 184 

The case of Sicily .186 

No freedom without Intelligence and Morality .... 187 

LECTURE XVII. 

DIFFEEENT FOEMS OF GOVEENMENT. 

Despotism adapted to a rude state of Society . . . .188 
Mixed government adapted to a more advanced state of Society . 189 
Superiority depends on Intellect and Morality . . . .190 

Hereditary rank . . 191 

The progress of Reason sweeps away the trappings of rank . . 192 
Arguments for hereditary rank considered . . . . .194 
Hereditary entails should be abolished . , . . . .195 

The example of France 196 

Voluntary surrender of distinctions, not forcible abrogation, 

advocated. , • . . . 196 

Social and Political aspects of the United States .... 197 
Mixed government favours the ruling classes . . . .197 



xii CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Democratic form of government . . f . . .198 

The ancient Eepublics founded in ignorance 199 

The Italian Kepublics — Switzerland 199 

Democracy requires high Moral and Intellectual development . 201 

Superiority of America overrated 202 

The future of the United States 203 

Effects of Education . . 204 

The advance of Democracy co-ordinate with the advance of 

Intelligence 205 

Fears from the advance of Democracy groundless . , , 206 

LECTUEE XVIII. 

MAN AS A EELIGIOUS BEING 1 . 

Natural Theology a branch of Natural Philosophy , . , 207 

This study not superseded by revelation 208 

A guide to the interpretation of Scripture ..... 209 
Eeligi on founded on the Faculties of Man . . . . . 210 
Does Natural Theology prescribe Eeligious Duties ? . . .213 
Proofs in Nature of the existence of the Deity .... 214 
Can the Natural Faculties discover the character of God? . . 21o 
True service is acting in the Spirit of the Deity . . . . 216 
Eeligious duties prescribed in the constitution of Nature . .218 
Barrenness of Christian teaching apart from the duties prescribed 
by Nature , . , 219 

LECTUEE XIX. 

THE EELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAX. 

The Ten Commandments compared with the dictates of Natural 

Theology 221 

The observance of the Sabbath 223 

Limitations to the law of honouring parents . . . . .226 
The Law of Nature as obligatory as the Moral Law — both come 

from God 226 

The New Testament supplies defects of the Moral Law . .227 

The nature and purpose of prayer 228 

And of devotion and praise 229 

LECTUEE XX. 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 

Clerical hostility to education in Science 230 

The elements of Natural Science the truths of God . . , 232 

Christianity appeals to cultivated Faculties ..... 233 

"What Science has done for Eeligion 233 

And against Superstition 234 

What Mental Physiology teaches 234 

The advocates of the Natural Laws the allies of Christianity . 236 

General conclusion 237 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



LECTURE I. 

X 

The Foundations of Moeal Science. 

In an introductory discourse on Moral Philosophy, the 
lecturer unfortunately has few attractions to offer. His 
proper duty is not to descant in glowing terms on the 
dignity of moral investigations, and on the importance of 
sound ethical conclusions both to public and to private 
happiness, but to give an account of the state in which his 
science at present exists, and of what he means to teach in 
his subsequent prelections. No subject can be conceived 
more destitute of direct attraction. I must beg your indul- 
gence, therefore, for the dryness of the details and the 
abstractness of the argument in this Lecture. I make these 
observations that you may not feel discouraged by an ap- 
pearance of difficulty in the commencement. I shall use 
every effort to render the subject intelligible ; and I promise 
you that the subsequent discourses shall be more practical 
and less abstruse than the present. 

Our first inquiry is into the basis of morals regarded as a 
science ; that is, into the natural foundations of moral 
obligation. 

There are two questions — very similar in terms, but 
widely different in substance — which we must carefully 
distinguish. The one^ is, What actions are virtuous ? and 
the other, What constitutes certain actions virtuous ? The 
answer to the first question, fortunately, is not difficult. 
Most individuals acknowledge that it is virtuous to love our 
neighbour, to reward a benefactor, to discharge our proper 
obligations, to love God, and so forth ; and that the opposite 
actions are vicious. But when the second question is put, 
Why is an action virtuous— why is it virtuous to love our 
neighbour, or to manifest gratitude or piety?— the most 

B 



2 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. I. 



contradictory answers are given by philosophers. The dis- 
covery of what constitutes virtue is a fundamental point 
in moral philosophy ; and hence the difficulties of the subject 
meet us at the very threshold of our inquiries. 

It is generally admitted that man has received definite 
mental and bodily constitutions ; and it is in them and 
their relations that we must seek for the natural foundations 
of virtue. The knowledge of these constitutions possessed 
by philosophers has been very imperfect ; and hence has 
arisen much of the obscurity of moral science. 

Philosophers have never been agreed about the existence 
or the non-existence in man even of the most important 
moral emotions — such as benevolence and the sentiment of 
justice ; and being uncertain whether such emotions exist 
or not, they have had no stable ground from which to start 
in their inquiries into the foundation of virtue. Since the 
publication of the writings of Hobbes, in the seventeenth 
century, there has been a constant series of disputes among 
philosophers on this subject. 

Hobbes taught that the laws which the civil magistrate 
enjoins are the ultimate standards of morality. Cudworth 
endeavoured to show that the origin of our notions of 
right and wrong was to be found in a particular faculty 
of the mind, which distinguished truth from falsehood. 
Mandeville declared that the moral virtues were mere sacri- 
fices of self-interest made for the sake of public approba- 
tion, and calls virtue the " political offspring which flattery 
begot upon pride." Dr. Clarke supposed virtue to consist 
in acting according to the fitnesses of things. Mr. Hume 
endeavoured to prove that "utility is the constituent or 
measure of virtue." Dr. Hutcheson maintained that it 
originated in the dictates of a moral sense. 

Dr. Paley does not admit such a faculty, but declares 
virtue to consist " in doing good to mankind in obedience to 
the will of God, and for the sake of everlasting happiness." 
Dr. Adam Smith endeavours to show that sympathy is the 
source of moral approbation. Dr. Reid, Mr. Stewart, and 
Dr. Thomas Brown maintain the existence of a moral 
faculty. Sir James Mackintosh describes conscience to be 
compounded and made up of associations. Dr. Ralph 
Wardlaw, of Glasgow, in a work on Ethics, published in 
1834, can see nothing in conscience except judgment. 

Here, then, we discover the most extraordinary conflict of 
opinion prevailing concerning the foundations of virtue. 



LECT. l] the foundations of MORAL SCIENCE. 3 

But this does not terminate the points of dispute among 
philosophers in regard to moral science. Its very existence — 
nay, the very possibility of its existence — as a philosophical 
study, is called in question. Dr. Wardlaw says : " Suppose 
that a chemist were desirous to ascertain the ingredients of 
water. What estimate should we form of his judgment if, 
with this view, he were to subject to his analysis a quantity 
of what had just passed in the bed of a sluggish river 
through the midst of a large manufacturing city, from whose 
common sewers and other outlets of impurity it had received 
every possible contamination which, either by; simple ad- 
mixture or by chemical affinity, had become^ incorporated 
with the virgin purity of the fountain ; and if, proceeding 
on such analysis, he were to publish to the world his thesis 
on the composition of water ? Little less preposterous must 
be the conduct of those philosophers who derive their ideas 
of what constitutes rectitude in morals from human nature 
as it is. They analyse the water of the polluted river, and 
refuse the guide that would conduct them to the moun- 
tain spring of its native purity." — (Christian Uthics, p. 44.) 

In these remarks Dr. Wardlaw evidently denies the 
possibility of discovering in the constitution of the human 
mind a foundation for a sound system of Ethics. He 
supports his denial still more strongly in the following 
words : — "According to Bishop Butler's theory, human nature 
is ' adapted to virtue 7 as evidently as ' a watch is adapted to 
measure time. 7 But suppose the watch, by the perverse 
interference of some lover of mischief, to have been so 
thoroughly disorganised — its moving and its subordinate 
parts and power so changed in their collocation and their 
mutual action — that the result has become a constant tendency 
to go backward instead of forward, or to go backwards and 
forwards with irregular, fitful, and ever-shifting alternation, 
so as to require a complete remodelling, and especially a 
readjustment of its great moving power, to render it fit for 
its original purpose : would not this be a more appropriate 
analogy for representing the present character of fallen 
man ? 

"The whole machine is out of order. The mainspring 
has been broken ; and an antagonistic power works all the 
parts of the mechanism. It is far from being with human 
nature, as Butler, by the similitude of the watch, might 
lead his readers to suppose. The watch, when duly adjusted, 
is only, in his phrase, 'liable to be out of order/ This 
b 2 



4 MORAL PHILOSOPHY, [lect. I. 

might suit for an illustration of the state of human nature 
at first, when it received its constitution from its Maker. 
But it has lost its appropriateness now. That nature, alas ! 
is not now a machine that is merely ' apt to go out of 
order ' — it is out of order ; so radically disorganised that the 
grand original power which impelled all its movements has 
been broken and lost, and an unnatural power, the very 
opposite of it, has taken its place ; so that it cannot be 
restored to the original harmony of its working, except by 
the interposition of the omnipotence that framed it." 
(P. 126.) 

The ideas here expressed by Dr. Wardlaw are entertained, 
with fewer or more modifications, by large classes of 
highly respectable men belonging to different religious 
denominations. 

How, then, amidst all this conflict of opinion as to the 
foundation and even as to the possibility of the existence of 
moral science, is any approach to certainty to be attained ? 

Dr. Wardlaw speaks of the human mind as of a watch 
that has the tendency to go backwards, or fitfully backwards 
and forwards ; as having its mainspring broken ; and as 
having all the parts of the mechanism worked by an 
antagonistic power. This description might appear to be 
sound to persons who, without great analytic powers of 
mind, resorted to no standard except the dark pages of 
history by which to test its truth ; but, assuming that the 
brain is a congeries of faculties, I ask, Who formed it? 
Who endowed it with its functions ? Only one answer can 
be given — it was God. When, therefore, we study the 
mental faculties and their functions, we go directly to the 
fountain-head of true knowledge regarding the natural 
qualities of the human mind. Whatever we shall ascertain 
to be written in them is doctrine imprinted by the finger 
of God Himself. If we are certain that these faculties 
were constituted by the Creator, we may rest assured 
that they have all a legitimate sphere of action. 

Our first step is to discover this sphere, and to draw 
a broad line of distinction between it and the sphere of 
their abuses ; and here the superiority of our method over 
that of philosophers who studied only their own conscious- 
ness and the actions of men becomes apparent. _ They con- 
founded abuses with uses; and because man is liable to 
abuse his faculties, they drew the conclusion, prematurely 
and unwarrantably, that his whole nature is in itself evil. 



lect. l] THE FOUNDATIONS OF MORAL SCIENCE. 5 

Individual men may err in attempting to discover the 
functions and legitimate spheres of action of the mental 
faculties, and may dispute about the conclusions thence to 
be drawn ; but this imputes no spuriousness to the faculties 
themselves. There they stand ; and they are as un- 
doubtedly the workmanship of the Creator as the sun, the 
planets, or the entire universe itself. Error may be corrected 
by more accurate observations ; and whenever we interpret 
their constitution aright, we shall assuredly be in possession 
of Divine truth. 

Kevelation necessarily pre- supposed a capacity in those to 
whom it is addressed of comprehending and judging of its 
communications ; and Dr. Wardlaw's argument appears to 
me to deny man's natural capacity to understand and inter- 
pret either Scripture or the works and institutions of the 
Creator. He discards natural ethics entirely, and insists that 
Scripture is our only guide in morals. Archbishop Whately, 
on the other hand, who is not less eminent as a theologian, 
and certainly more distinguished as a philosopher, than Dr. 
Wardlaw, assures us that " God has not revealed to us a sys- 
tem of morality such as would have been needed for a being 
who had no other means of distinguishing right and wrong. 
On the contrary, the inculcation of virtue and the repro- 
bation of vice in Scripture are in such a tone as seem to pre- 
suppose a natural power, or a capacity for acquiring the 
power to distinguish them. And if a man, denying or re- 
nouncing all claims of natural conscience, should practise, 
without scruple, everything he did not find expressly for- 
bidden in Scripture, and think himself not bound to do 
anything that is not there expressly enjoined, exclaiming at 
every turn — 

' Is it so nominated in the bond ? ' 

he would be leading a life very unlike what a Christian's 
should be." 

In my humble opinion, it is only an erroneous view of 
human nature, on the one side or the other, that can lead to 
such contradictory opinions as these. 

By observing the faculties of the mind, then, and the 
mental powers connected with them, we perceive that three 
great classes of faculties have been bestowed on man. 

1. Animal Propensities. 

2. Moral Sentiments. 

3. Intellectual Faculties. 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. Li 



Considering these in detail, we do not find one of them 
that man has made or could have made himself. Man can 
create nothing. Can we fashion for ourselves a new sense, 
or add a new organ — a third eye, for instance— to those we~ 
already possess -i Impossible ! All those organs, therefore, 
are the gifts of the Creator ; and in speaking of them as 
such, I am bound to treat them with the same reverence 
that should be paid to any of His other works. Where, then, 
I ask, do we, in contemplating the faculties, find the evidence 
of the mainspring being broken 1 Where do we find the, 
antagonistic power which works all the mechanism contrary 
to the original design ? 

I cannot answer these questions : I am unable to discover 
either the broken mainspring or an antagonistic power. I see 
and feel — as who does not ? — the crimes, the errors, and the 
miseries of human beings to which Dr. Wardlaw refers as 
proofs of the disorder of which he speaks ; but science gives 
a widely different account of their origin. We observe, for 
example, that individual men commit murder or blasphemy, 
and we all acknowledge that this is in opposition to virtue ; 
but we do not find a disposition to murder, or a faculty 
whose office it is to antagonise all the moral faculties, and to 
commit blasphemy. All that we discover is that man has 
been created an organised being ; that, as such, he needs 
food for nourishment ; that, in conformity with this consti- 
tution, he has received a stomach calculated to digest the 
flesh of animals and to convert it into aliment ; and that he 
sometimes abuses the functions of the stomach : and Tvhen 
he does so, we call this abuse gluttony and drunkenness. 

We observe, further, that in aid of his stomach he has re- 
ceived carnivorous teeth ; and in order to complete the 
system of arrangements, he has received a propensity, 
prompting him to kill animals that he may eat them. In 
accordance with these endowments, animals to be killed and 
eaten are presented to him in abundance by the Creator. A 
man may abuse this propensity and kill animals for the 
pleasure of putting them to death — this is cruelty ; or he 
may go a step further— he may wantonly, under the insti- 
gation of the same propensity, kill his fellow-men — and 
this is murder. But this is a widely different view of 
human nature from that which supposes it to be endowed 
with positively vicious and perverse propensities — with 
machinery having a tendency only to go backwards, or to 
go alternately and fitfully backwards and forwards. Those 



lect. i.] THE FOUNDATIONS OF MORAL SCIENCE. 7 

individuals, then, who commit murder abuse their faculty 
of Destructiveness by directing it against their fellow-men. 

Again, it is unquestionable that men steal, cheat, lie, blas- 
pheme, and commit many other crimes ; but we in vain look 
in the brain for faculties destined to perpetrate these offences, 
or for a faculty antagonistic to virtue, and whose proper office 
is to commit crimes in general. We discover faculties of 
Acquisitiveness, which have legitimate objects, but which, 
being abused, lead to theft ; faculties of Secretiveness, which 
have a highly useful sphere of activity, but which, in like 
manner, when abused, lead to falsehood and deceit ; and so 
with other organs. 

These faculties, I repeat, are the direct gifts of the Creator, 
and if the mere fact of their existence be not sufficient 
evidence of this proposition, we may find overwhelming 
proof in its favour by studying their relations to external 
nature. Those who deny that the human mind is consti- 
tutionally the same now as it was when it emanated from 
the hand of the Creator generally admit that external nature 
at least is the direct workmanship of the Deity. They do 
not say that man, in corrupting his own dispositions, altered 
the whole fabric of the universe— that he infused into 
animals new instincts, or imposed on the vegetable kingdom 
a new constitution and different laws. They admit that 
God created all these such as they exist. 

Now, in surveying vegetable organisation, we perceive pro- 
duction from an embryo — sustenance by food, growth, 
maturity, decay, and death — woven into the very fabric of 
their existence. In surveying the animal creation, we 
discover the same phenomena and the same results ; and on 
turning to ourselves, we find that we too are organised, that 
we assimilate food, that we grow, that we attain maturity, 
and that our bodies die. Here, then, there is an institution 
by the Creator of great systems (vegetable and animal) of 
production, growth, ^ decay, _ and death. > It will not be 
doubted that these institutions owe their existence to the 
Divine will. 

If it be asserted that men's delinquencies offended the 
Deity, and brought His wrath on the offenders, and that 
the present constitution of the world is the consequence of 
that displeasure, Philosophy offers no answer to this pro- 
position. She does not inquire into the motives which 
induced the Creator to constitute the world, physical and 
mental, such as we see it ; but in pointing to the existence 



8 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. L 

and constitution of vegetables, of animals, and of man, she 
respectfully maintains that all these God did constitute, and 
endow with their properties and relationships ; and that in 
studying them we are investigating His genuine workman- 
ship. 

Now, if we find on the one hand a system of decay and 
death in external nature, animate and inanimate, we find 
also in man a faculty of Destructiveness which is pleased 
with destruction, and which places him in harmony with 
the order of creation. If we find, on the one hand, an 
external world, in which there exist fire calculated to 
destroy life by burning, water by drowning, and cold by 
freezing, ponderous and moving bodies capable of injuring 
us by blows, and a great power of gravitation exposing us 
to danger by falling ; we discover, on the other hand, in sur- 
veying our own mental constitution, a faculty of Cautious- 
ness, whose office it is to prompt us to take care and to 
avoid these sources of danger. In other words, we see an 
external economy admirably adapted to our internal 
economy; and hence we receive an irresistible conviction 
that the one of these arrangements has been designedly 
framed in relation to the other. External destruction is 
related to our internal faculty of Destructiveness ; external 
danger to our internal faculty of Cautiousness. 

I have frequently remarked that one of the most striking 
proofs of the existence of a Deity appears to me to be 
obtained by surveying the roots of a tree and its relation- 
ship to the earth. These are admirably adapted ; and my 
argument is this : — The earth is a body which knows neither 
its own existence nor the existence of the tree : the tree 
also knows neither its own qualities nor those of the earth. 
Yet the adaptation of the one to the other is a real and 
useful relation, which we ? as intelligent beings, see and com- 
prehend. m That adaptation could not exist unless a mind 
had conceived, executed, and established it. The mind that 
did so is not of this world ; therefore a Deity, who is that 
mind, exists ; and every time we look on this adaptation, we 
see His power and wisdom directly revealed to us. 

The same argument applies, and with equal force, to the 
mental faculties and to external nature. We see natural 
objects threatening us with danger, and we find in our- 
selves a faculty prompting us to regard our own safety. 
This adaptation is assuredly Divine ; but you will observe 
that if the adaptation be Divine, the things adapted must 



lect. I.] THE FOUNDATIONS OF MORAL SCIENCE. 9 

also be Divine : the external world threatening danger must 
have been deliberately constituted such as it is ; and the 
human mind must have been deliberately constituted such 
as it is, otherwise this adaptation could not exist. 

Again, we find that the human body needs both food and 
raiment ; and on surveying the external world, we discover 
that in a great portion of the earth there are winter's barren 
frosts and snows. But in examining the human mind, we 
find a faculty of Constructiveness, prompting and enabling 
us to fabricate clothing ; and Acquisitiveness, prompting us 
to acquire and store up articles fitted for our sustenance and 
accommodation, so as to place us in comfort when the chill 
winds blow and the ground yields us no support. We 
discover also that Nature presents us with numberless raw 
materials, fitted to be worked up, by means of our faculties, 
into the very commodities of which our bodies stand in need. 

All these gifts and arrangements, I repeat, are assuredly 
of Divine institution ; and although individual men, by 
abusing the faculty of Constructiveness, oftentimes commit 
forgeries, pick locks, and perpetrate other crimes, and, by 
abusing Acquisitiveness, steal, this does not prove that these 
faculties are in themselves evil. 

There is a wide difference, then, between Dr. Wardlaw's 
views and mine in regard to human nature. His broken 
mainspring and antagonist power are nowhere to be met 
with in all the records of real philosophy, while the crimes 
which he ascribes to them are accounted for^ by abuses of 
faculties clearly instituted by the Creator, having legitimate 
spheres of action, and wisely adapted to a world obviously 
arranged by Him in relation to them. 

Dr. Wardlaw appears to have studied human nature chiefly 
in the actions of men, and he has not distinguished between 
the faculties bestowed by the Creator and the abuses of 
them, for which individual delinquents alone are answer- 
able. 

If these views be well founded, Moral Philosophy, as a 
scientific study, becomes not only possible, but exceedingly 
interesting and profitable. Its objects are evidently to 
trace the nature and legitimate sphere of action of all our 
bodily functions and mental faculties, and their relations to 
the external world, with the conviction that to use them 
properly is virtue, to abuse them is vice. These principles 
also, if sound, will enable us to account for the barren 
condition of Moral Philosophy as a science, 



10 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. I. 



The numerous errors, the confusion and contradiction of 
previous moralists, are to be ascribed to their having no 
adequate physiological knowledge of the structure and 
functions of the body, and no stable philosophy of mind. 
In particular, they possessed no knowledge of the mental 
faculties, and no sufficient means of discriminating be- 
tween what is natural and w T hat is incidental to human 
conduct. Sir James Mackintosh remarks that "there 
must be primary pleasures, pains, and even appetites, 
which arise from no prior state of mind, and which, 
if explained at all, can be derived only from bodily 
organisation; for," says he, "if there were not, there 
could be no secondary desires. What the number of the 
underived principles may be is a question to which the 
answers of philosophers have been extremely various, and 
of which the consideration is not necessary to our present 
purpose. The rules of philosophising, however, require that 
causes should not be multiplied without necessity." 

With all deference to Sir James Mackintosh's authority, 
I conceive that the determination of "the number of the 
underived principles " of mind is the first step in all sound 
mental science, and especially in ethics ; and when he 
admits that these " can be derived only from bodily organisa- 
tion," it is unphilosophical in him to add "that the rules 
of philosophising require that causes (faculties ?) should not 
be multiplied without necessity." Who would think of at- 
tempting either to multiply or to diminish senses, feelings, 
or intellectual powers depending on " bodily organisation," 
unless he could multiply and diminish, make and unmake, 
corresponding bodily organs at the same time ? 

My object will be to expound the courses of action to 
which we are prompted by all our faculties when acting in 
harmonious combination ; and I shall admit all actions to 
be virtuous or right which are approved of by these com- 
bined powers, and treat all as vicious or wrong which are 
disavowed by them ; and my doctrine is that it is accord- 
ance with the dictates of all the faculties, enlightened by 
knowledge harmoniously combined, which constitutes certain 
actions virtuous, and discordance with them which constitutes 
other actions vicious. 

We are now able to understand the origin of the various 
theories of the foundation of virtue to which I alluded at 
the commencement of this Lecture, and which have been 
the themes of so much discussion among philosophers. 



lect. I.] THE FOUNDATIONS OF MORAL SCIENCE. 11 

Most of the authors whom I have quoted recognise one of 
these three great foundations of virtue : According to them, 
1st, All actions are virtuous which tend to promote the 
happiness of sentient and intelligent beings, and they are 
virtuous because they possess this tendency ; 2ndly, All 
actions are virtuous which are conformable to the will of 
God, and they are so for this reason, and no other ; 3rdly, 
All actions are virtuous which are in conformity with the 
dictates of our moral sense or moral faculty, which con- 
formity is the sole characteristic of virtue. The partisans 
of each of these foundations of virtue have denied the 
reality or the sufficiency of the other foundations. 

Each of the moral sentiments produces the feeling of 
right and wrong in its own sphere.^ Benevolence proclaims 
cruelty to be wrong, and Veneration condemns profanity. 
But each is liable to err when it acts singly. There are 
men, for example, in whom Benevolence is very strong and 
Conscientiousness very weak, and who, following the dic- 
tates of the former, without reference to those of the latter 
sentiment, often perpetrate great wrongs by indulging in an 
extravagant generosity at the expense of others. They are 
generous before they are just. 

Charles Surface, in the School for Scandal is the 
personification of such a character. t Veneration acting 
singly is liable to sanction superstitious observances ; 
or acting in combination with Destructiveness, without 
Benevolence and Conscientiousness, it may approve of cruel 
persecution for the sake of preserving the purity of the 
faith which it has embraced. Further, as each of the 
inferior propensities has a legitimate sphere of action, it 
has legitimate demands, and the moral and intellectual 
faculties must give due effect to these before their decisions 
can be regarded as just and right. For these reasons I 
consider the virtue of an action to consist in its being in 
harmony with the dictates of all the faculties acting in har- 
monious combination, and didy enlightened. 

The moral faculties often do act singly, and while they 
keep within the limits of their virtuous sphere, the dictates 
of all of them harmonise. We have a similar example in 
music. Melody and time both enter into the constitution 
of music ; but we may have time without melody, as in 
beating a drum ; or melody without time, as in the sounds 
of an iEolian harp. But the two faculties which take 
cognisance of melody and time are constituted so as to be 



12 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. I. 



capable of acting in harmony when they are both applied 
to the same object. So it is in regard to the moral senti- 
ments. If a man fall into the sea, another individual who 
has a large organ of Benevolence, and who can swim, may 
be prompted by the instinctive impulse of Benevolence 
instantly to leap into the water and save him, without in 
the least thinking of the will of God or the obligations of 
duty. But when we calmly contemplate the action, we 
perceive it to be one falling within the legitimate sphere 
of Benevolence. It is approved of by enlightened intellect, 
and is also conformable at once to the Divine will and to 
the dictates of Conscientiousness. 

In like manner, every action that is truly conformable to 
the will of God or agreeable to Veneration, when acting 
within its proper sphere, will be found just and beneficial in 
its consequences, and in harmony also with Conscientious- 
ness and Benevolence. And every just and right action 
will be discovered to be beneficial in its consequences, and 
also in harmony with the will of God. It will be discovered 
also to be in harmony with the legitimate demands of ali 
the propensities. 

There is a distinction between virtue and merit, which it 
is important to understand. Virtue, as I have said, consists 
in actions in harmony with all our faculties ; merit, in 
actions performed in obedience to the dictates of the moral 
sentiments and enlightened intellect, in opposition to the 
solicitations of the propensities. This distinction is ably 
elucidated by a writer, who says : " The idea of merit 
emanates solely from the operation of the selfish feelings 
and desires." " It is evident that Conscientiousness can see 
no merit in being just, for inclination can never perceive 
merit in its own gratification. In the same way, Veneration 
can discover no merit in yielding that deferential homage to 
superiority which is its natural tribute. And Benevolence 
is equally blind to the perception of merit, in being kind and 
charitable. Yet merit is a word which, in reference to 
justice, veneration, and charity, conveys a distinct idea; and 
we are bound, therefore, to account for its existence. J? 

When the one of these faculties acts independently of the 
other, it does not necessarily err, but it is more liable to do 
so than when all operate in concert. This is the reason that 
any theory of morals founded on only one of them is 
generally imperfect or unsound. 

Another question remains — What means do we possess for 



LecT. l] the foundations of MORAL SCIENCE. 13 

discovering the qualities of actions, so that our whole 
faculties may give emotions of approval or disapproval upon 
sound data? For example — Veneration disposes us to obey 
the will of God, but how shall we discover what the will 
of God is ? It is the office of the intellect to make this 
discovery. 

The intellect must be employed, therefore, to discover the 
motives, relations, and consequences of the actions to be 
judged of, and the propensities and moral sentiments will 
give emotions of approval or of disapproval, according to 
the aspects presented to them. In many ordinary cases no 
difficulty in judging occurs ; for instance, the mere percep- 
tion of a fellow-creature struggling in the water is sufficient 
to rouse Benevolence, and to inspire us with the desire to 
save him. 

But when the question is put — Is an hospital for foundling 
children benevolent ? — if we look only at one result (saving 
the lives of individual children), and listen to Philopro- 
genitiveness exclusively, we should say that it is ; but if the 
intellect observes all the consequences — for instance, first, 
the temptation to vice afforded by provision being made for 
illegitimate children \ secondly, the mortality of the infants, 
which is enormous, from their being withdrawn from 
maternal care and entrusted to mere hireling keepers ; 
thirdly, the isolation of the children so reared from all 
kindred relationship with the rest of the race ; and fourthly, 
the expense which is thrown away in this very questionable 
arrangement ; I say, after the intellect has discovered and 
contemplated all these facts and results, neither Philopro- 
genitiveness nor the moral sentiments would be gratified 
with foundling hospitals, but both would desire to apply the 
public funds to more purely beneficent institutions. 

Without intellect, therefore, the propensities and the 
sentiments have not knowledge ; and without propensities 
and moral sentiments, the intellect sees merely facts and 
results, and is destitute of feeling. The harmonious action 
of the whole gives the rule of virtue. 

Science shows that different individuals possess the mental 
faculties in different degrees ; I do not mean, therefore, to 
say that whatever the proportions of these may be in each 
individual, the dictates of his animal, moral, and intellectual 
powers, acting in harmonious combination, are rules of con- 
duct not to be disputed. On the contrary, in most in- 
dividuals one or several of the faculties are so deficient or 



14 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. I. 

so excessive in proportion to the others, that their percep- 
tions of duty will differ from the highest standards. The 
dictates of the animal, the moral, and the intellectual 
powers, therefore, acting in harmonious combination, which 
constitute rules of conduct, are the collective dictates of the 
best endowed and best balanced minds, illuminated by the 
greatest knowledge. 

If, then^ this theory of our moral constitution be well 
founded, it explains the darkness and confusion of the 
opinions entertained by previous philosophers on the 
subject. 

To be able, then, to discover what courses of action are in 
harmony with all our powers, we must use our intellectual 
faculties in examining Nature. Believing that both man and 
the external world are the workmanship of the Creator, I 
propose, in the following Lectures, to consider — 

1st, The constitution of man as an individual ; and to 
endeavour to discover what duties are prescribed to him by 
its qualities and objects. 

2ndly, Man as a domestic being; endeavouring to dis- 
cover the duties prescribed to him by his constitution as 
a husband, a father, and a child. 

3rdly, Man as a social being ; discussing the duties arising 
from his social qualities. This will involve the principles of 
government and political economy. 

4thly, Man as a religious being; discussing the duties 
which he owes to God, so far as these are discoverable 
from the light of Nature. 



15 



LECTURE II. 

The Sanctions of the Moral Laws. 

In my last Lecture I endeavoured to point out the founda- 
tion on which Moral Philosophy, inferred from the consti- 
tution of Nature, rests. The mental faculties being the gift 
of God, each has a legitimate sphere of activity, though 
liable to be abused ; and the rule for discriminating between 
uses and abuses is that every act is morally right which is 
approved of by the whole faculties duly > enlightened and 
acting harmoniously; while all actions disapproved of by 
the faculties thus acting are wrong. In all harmonious 
actions, the moral sentiments and the intellect, being 
superior in kind, direct the propensities. In cases of conflict 
the propensities must yield. Such is the internal guide to 
morality with which man has been furnished. 

The next inquiry is, Whether the judgments of our 
faculties, when acting harmoniously, are supported by any 
external authority in nature 1 Every law supposes a law- 
giver, and punishment annexed to transgression. Certain 
courses of action being prescribed, and certain courses for- 
bidden by the constitutions of external nature and of our 
own faculties, God, who made these, is consequently the 
Lawgiver ; but the question remains — Has He used any 
means to give sanction, in this world, to His commands 
revealed to us in nature ? All are agreed that rewards and 
punishments have been established by God ; but as to the 
extent, manner, and time of dispensing them, very different 
opinions are entertained. By some it is conceived that God, 
like the human magistrate, watches the infringement of His 
laws in each particular instance, and applies punishment ac- 
cordingly; but that neither His punishments nor His rewards 
are the natural effects of the conduct to which they have 
reference. 

Such is the view of the ways of Providence embodied 
in ParnelPs " Hermit ; " and many of us may recollect the 
pleasure with which, in youth, we perused that representa- 
tion, and the regret we felt that experience did not support 
its beautiful theory. A servant is described as having been 
thrown over a bridge by his companion, and drowned : 



16 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. it. 

which event at first shocks our Benevolence ; but we are 
then told that the sufferer intended that evening to murder 
a kind and indulgent master, and that his companion was an 
angel sent by God to prevent and also to punish him for his 
intended crime. Another scene represents an hospitable 
rich man's son dying apparently of convulsions ; but we are 
told that the same angel suffocated him to snatch him away 
from his parents, because their affections, doting too fondly 
on him, led them to forget their duty to Heaven. 

These representations, of course, are fictitious ; but notions 
of a similar character may be traced existing in the minds of 
many serious persons, and constituting their theory of the 
Divine government of the world. The grand feature of this 
system is that the punishment does not follow from the 
offence by any natural bond of connection, but is ad- 
ministered separately and directly by a special interposition 
of Providence. The servant's wicked design had no natural 
connection with his falling over the bridge ; and the neglect 
of Heaven by the parents of the child had no such natural 
relation to its physiological condition that it should have 
died of convulsions in consequence of that sin. 

There are, _ as I have said, some religious persons who 
really entertain notions similar to these : who believe that 
God, by special acts of providence or particular manifesta- 
tions of His power, rewards and punishes men's actions in a 
manner not connected with their offences by any natural 
link of cause and effect ; or, at least, so remotely connected 
that the link is not discernible by human sagacity. They 
conceive that this view imparts to the Divine government a 
sublime mysteriousness which renders it more imposing, 
solemn, and awful, and better calculated than any other to 
enforce obedience on men. 

To me it appears, on the contrary, to be erroneous, and to 
be a fountain of superstition, at once derogatory to the 
dignity of the Divine Kuler, and injurious to the moral, in- 
tellectual, and religious character of His subjects. I shall, in 
a subsequent part of this Lecture, state the reasons for this 
opinion. 

Another notion entertained regarding the moral govern- 
ment of the world is that God has revealed in the Scriptures 
every duty which He requires us to perform, and every action 
which He forbids us to do ; that He leaves us at full liberty 
in this life to obey or to disobey these commands as we 
please ; but that, in the world to come, He will call us to 



LECT. n.] TEE SANCTIONS OF THE MORAL LAWS. 17 



account, and punish us for our^ sins or reward us for our 
obedience. There are strong objections to this theory also. 
Religious persons will at once recognise that the instruction 
communicated to man in the Scriptures may be classed 
under two great heads. 

The first class embraces events that occurred before the 
existing state of nature commenced (such as the transactions 
in Paradise before the fall), also events that transcend nature 
(such as the resurrection of Jesus Christ), and events that 
are destined to occur when nature shall be no more (such as 
the final judgment) ; together with certain duties (such as 
belief, or faith) which are founded on those communications. 
In regard to ail of these, science and philosophy are silent. 
The second head has reference to the practical conduct 
which man is bound to pursue with regard to the beings in 
the present world. 

The first objection, then, to the theory of the Divine 
government last mentioned is that the Bible, however 
complete with respect to the former department of in- 
struction, really does not contain a full exposition of man's 
secular duties. 

A second objection to the theory in question is this — 
it implies that God exercises very little temporal authority 
in the government of this world, reserving His punishments 
and rewards chiefly for a future life. One cause of this view 
seems to be that most of the teachers of morals and religion 
have confined their attention to moral and religious duties, 
and often to their own peculiar and erroneous interpretation 
of them : instead of taking a comprehensive survey of 
human nature and of all the duties prescribed by its consti- 
tution. It humbly appears to me that God does exercise a 
very striking and efficient jurisdiction over this world, and 
that it is chiefly through our inattention to the manner in 
which He does so that we are blind to its existence and to 
its effects. 

It is important to establish the reality and efficiency of 
the Divine government in this world, because a plausible 
argument has been reared on the contrary doctrine, to the 
effect that there can be no reward and punishment at all, if 
none is administered in this life. The line of reasoning by 
which this view is supported is the following : — We can 
judge of God, it is said, only by His works. His works in 
this world are all that we are acquainted with. If, therefore, 
in this life, we find that virtue goes unrewarded, and that 
c 



18 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. il 



vice triumphs, the legitimate inference is that it will always 
be so. 

Bishop Butler, indeed, in his celebrated " Analogy," has 
argued that because God has not executed complete justice 
here, He must intend to do so hereafter, for justice is one of 
His attributes ; but Mr. Bobert Forsyth, in his work on 
Moral Science, has stated the objection to this argument in 
strong terms. "If," says he, "God has created a world in 
which justice is not accomplished, by what analogy, or on 
what grounds, do we infer that any other world of His 
creation will be free from this imperfection 1 ; ' Butler 
would answer, " Because justice is an attribute of the 
Divine mind." The opponents, however, reply, "How do you 
know that it is so ? We know the Deity only through His 
works ; and if you concede that justice is not accomplished in 
the only world of which we have any experience, the legiti- 
mate inference is that justice is not one of His attributes ; 
at least, the inference that it is one of them is illogical." 

It will serve the cause of moral science to present a valid 
answer to these objections ; and the most satisfactory, to my 
mind, would be one which should show that the Divine 
Kuler actually does execute justice here, and that therefore 
we are entitled to infer that He will be just hereafter ; and 
such, accordingly, is the argument which I respectfully pro- 
pose to maintain. 

The supposed anomalies in the Divine government are 
apparent only, and, when properly understood, form no 
exception to the Creator's attribute of justice. The key to 
them is the separate action of the different departments of 
our own constitution and of external nature, the independent 
operation of natural beings and substances, each regulated 
by laws peculiar to itself. Viewing the world on this prin- 
ciple, we discover that inorganic matter operates according 
to fixed laws, which are independent of the moral or the 
religious character of those whom it affects. 

If, for example, six persons be travelling in a coach, and 
if it break down through insufficiency of the axle, or from any 
similar cause, the travellers will be projected against ex- 
ternal objects according to the impetus communicated to 
their bodies by the previous motion of the vehicle, exactly 
as if they had been inanimate substances of the same texture 
and materials. Their vices or their virtues will not modify 
the pjhysical influences that impel or resist them. The 
cause of the accident is simply physical imperfection in the 



LECT. II.] THE SANCTIONS OF THE MORAL LAWS. 19 



vehicle, and not the displeasure of God against the individual 
men who occupy it, on account of their sins. If one break 
a leg, another an arm, a third his neck, and a fourth escape 
unhurt, the difference of result is to be ascribed solely to 
the differences of the mechanical action of the coach on 
their bodies, according to their difference of size, weight, 
and position, or to differences in the objects against which 
they are projected ; one falling against a stone, and another 
perhaps alighting on turf. 

The whole calamity in such a case is to be viewed simply 
as a punishment for neglecting to have a coach sufficiently 
strong \ and it serves to render men who have the charge of 
coaches more attentive to their duty in future. 

In so far, then, as pain, distress, and calamity arise froi 
the action of physical substances, they should be viewed 
merely as punishments for our not paying due attention to 
the laws by which the act-ion of these substances is regulated. 
They forcibly tell us that if we wish to live in safety we 
must habitually exercise our understandings in accommodat- 
ing our conduct to the agencies of the material objects around 
us. It seems irrational to expect that God will hereafter 
compensate good men for sufferings which they bring 
upon themselves by neglecting to study and obey His own 
institutions. 

The next class of objects to which I solicit your attention 
is the organic. These have received definite constitutions, 
and observe specific modes of action ; in other words, they 
also act under fixed and independent laws, impressed on 
their constitution by Nature. 

Thus, the human body is subject to continual waste, to 
repair which, nutriment is necessary. This is supplied 
through the medium of the blood, which replaces decayed 
particles carried off by the absorbent vessels, and stimulates 
the brain and other organs to perform their functions aright. 
But to render it capable of accomplishing these objects, it 
must be supplied with chyle from the stomach and with oxy- 
gen from the lungs ; and hence a necessity arises for eating- 
wholesome food and for breathing pure air. The bones are 
composed of organised materials, and are supplied with 
certain vessels for their nutrition, and with others for the 
removal of their decayed particles : all of which act regu- 
larly, like the mechanism of a plant. Similar observations 
apply to the muscles, the skin, the blood-vessels, the brain, 
and all other portions of the body, 
c 2 



20 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. n. 



Growth and decay, health and disease, pleasure and pain, 
in all of these parts, take place according to fixed rules, 
which are impressed on the organs themselves ; and the 
organs act invariably, independently, and immutably, 
according to these rules. 

For instance — if we neglect to take exercise, the circulation 
of the blood becomes languid, the bones, muscles, nerves, 
and brain are imperfectly nourished ; and the consequences 
are pain — loss of appetite, of strength, of mental vivacity, 
and vigour — and a general feeling of unhappiness. If we 
labour too intensely with our minds, we exhaust our brains, 
impair digestion, and destroy sleep. This renders the organs 
of the mind incapable of action ; and we are visited at last 
with lassitude, imbecility, palsy, apoplexy, or death. If we 
exercise our muscles too severely and too long, we expend 
an undue amount of the nervous energy of our bodies on 
them, our brains become incapable of thinking and the 
nerves incapable of feeling, and dulness and stupidity seize 
on our mental powers. 

It is, therefore, a law inscribed on the constitution of the 
body, that we should consume a sufficiency of wholesome 
food, and should breathe unvitiated air. And however 
moral our conduct — however constant our attendance in 
the house of prayer — however benevolent our actions may 
be — yet, if we neglect this organic law, punishment will be 
inflicted. In like manner, if the laws of exercise be in- 
fringed — if, for instance, we overwork the brain — we are 
visited with punishment, whether the offence be committed 
in reclaiming the heathen, in healing the sick, in pursuing 
commerce, in gaming, or in ruling a State. If we over-task 
the brain at all, it becomes exhausted, and its action is 
enfeebled; and as the efficiency of the mind depends on its 
proper condition, the mental powers suffer a corresponding 
obscuration and decay. 

There is obvious reason in this arrangement, also. If the 
brain were to flourish under excessive toil in a good cause, 
and were to suffer under the same degree of exertion only 
in a bad one, the order of nature would be deranged. Good 
men would no longer be men ; they might dispense with 
food, sleep, repose, and every other enjoyment which binds 
them to the general company of mankind. 

But, according to the view which I am expounding, we 
are led to regard the constitution, modes of action, and 
relations of our organised system as all instituted directly 



LECT. u.) THE SANCTIONS OF THE MORAL LAWS. 21 

by the Creator— birth from organised parents, growth, 
decay, and death in old age, appear as inherent parts of our 
frames, designedly allotted to us ; while pain, disease, 
premature decay, and early death appear, to a great^ extent, 
to be the consequences of not using our constitutions 
properly. 

When, therefore, we see the children of good men snatched 
away by death in infancy or in youth, we should ascribe that 
calamity to these children having inherited feebly organised 
bodies from their parents, or having, through ignorance or 
improper treatment, been led, in their modes of life, to in- 
fringe the laws which regulate organic matter. The object 
of their death seems to be to impress on others the import- 
ance of attending to these laws, and to prevent the trans- 
mission of imperfect corporeal systems to future beings. If 
we see the children of the wicked flourishing in health and 
vigour, the inference is that they have inherited strong 
constitutions from their parents, and have not in their own 
lives seriously transgressed the organic laws. 

We have no authority from our philosophy for supposing 
that Providence, in removing the just man's children, in- 
tends merely to try his faith or patience, to wean him from 
the world, or to give occasion for recompensing him here- 
after for his suffering; nor for believing that the unjust- 
man's family is permitted to flourish, with a view of aggra- 
vating his guilt by adding ingratitude for such blessing to 
his other iniquities in order to augment his punishment in 
a future life. We see, in these results, simply the con- 
sequences of obedience and disobedience to the laws im- 
pressed by the Creator on our constitution. 

It still remains true that " those whom God loveth, He 
chasteneth," because the punishments inflicted for the 
breach of His laws are instituted in love, to induce us 
to obey them for our own good ; but we escape from the 
contradiction of believing that He sometimes shows His 
love by punishing men who obey His laws : which would 
be the case if He afflicted good men by bad health, or by 
the death of their children, merely as trials and chastise- 
ments, independently of their having infringed the laws of 
their organic constitution. 

We avoid also another contradiction. The most religious 
persons, who implicitly believe that disease is sent as a 
chastisement for sin or in token of Divine love, never 
hesitate, when they are sick, to send for a physician, and 



22 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. n. 



they pay him large fees to deliver them as speedily as 
possible from this form of spiritual discipline. This is 
very inconsistent on their part. The physician, however, 
proceeds at once to inquire into the physical causes which 
have disordered the patient's organisation ; he hears of wet 
feet, exposure to cold air, checked perspiration, excessive 
fatigue, or some similar influence, and he instantly pre- 
scribes physical remedies, and is often successful in re- 
moving the disorder. In all this proceeding the common 
sense of the patient and the physician leads them to prac- 
tise the very doctrine which I am expounding. They view 
the suffering as the direct consequence of the departure 
of some of the bodily organs from their healthy course of 
action, and they endeavour to restore that state. 

The human mind and its various faculties constitute a 
third class of objects which have received definite consti- 
tutions, and observe specific laws in their modes of action. 
These laws are inherent in the constitution of our mental 
faculties, and are divided into moral, religious, and intel- 
lectual: In my system of Mental Physiology the faculties 
are treated of under corresponding divisions : viz., of Animal 
Propensities, Moral Sentiments, and Intellectual Powers ; 
and the primitive functions, the spheres of activity, and 
the uses and abuses of each are described, so far as these 
are ascertained. 

Each of these faculties is related to certain objects bene- 
ficial to man, and there are laws regulating its action in 
attaining them : the faculties are so far independent of 
each other that we may pursue the objects of one or more 
of them, and omit the pursuit of the objects of the others. 
The results of the action of the faculties are fixed and 
certain, and by knowing the primitive functions, the objects, 
and the laws of our faculties, we may anticipate with con- 
siderable certainty the general issue of any course of 
conduct which we may systematically pursue. Further, 
when we have acted in conformity with the harmonious 
dictates of all our faculties, we shall find the issue pleasing 
and beneficial ; whereas when we have yielded to the im- 
pulse of the lower propensities in opposition to the moral 
sentiments and enlightened intellect, which, in cases of 
conflict, are the ruling powers, we shall reap sorrow and 
disappointment. 

I shall illustrate these principles by examples. The pro- 
pensity of Acquisitiveness desires to acquire property ; and 



lect. H.] THE SANCTIONS OF THE MORAL LAWS. 



23 



this is its primitive function. If it act independently of 
intellect — as it does in idiots, ami sometimes in children — 
it may lead to the acquiring and the accumulating of things 
of no utility. If it be directed by enlightened intellect, it 
will desire to acquire and store up articles of real value. 
But it may act either with or without the additional 
guidance of the moral sentiments. When it acts ivithout 
that direction, it may prompt the individual to appropriate 
to himself things of value, regardless of justice, or of the 
rights of others. When acting in harmony with the moral 
sentiments, it will lead to acquiring property by just and 
lawful means. 

Further, it may act under the guidance of the moral 
sentiments so far as never to invade the rights of others, 
and yet its action may terminate in its own gratification, 
without any fixed ulterior object. 

According to my perceptions of the Divine government, 
there are specified results attached by the Creator to each of 
the modes of action of the propensity. For example, when 
the propensity acts without intellect, the result, as I have 
said, is the accumulation of worthless trash. We see this 
occur occasionally in adult persons who are not idiots in 
other matters, but who, under a blind Acquisitiveness, buy 
old books, old furniture, or any other object which they can 
obtain very cheap, or as a bargain : as a cheap purchase is 
commonly called. 

When the propensity acts independently of justice and 
leads to stealing, the moral faculties of impartial spectators 
are offended, and prompt them to use speedy measures to 
restrain and punish the thief. 

When Acquisitiveness acts in conformity with intellect 
and justice, but with no higher aim than its own gratifi- 
cation, the result is success in accumulating wealth, but 
the absence of satisfactory enjoyment of it. The individual 
feels his life pervaded by vanity and vexation of spirit, 
because after he has become rich he discovers himself to 
be without pursuit, object, or possession calculated to 
gratify his moral and religious feelings, which must be 
satisfied before full happiness can be experienced. This 
is the direct result of the constitution of the mind ; for as 
we possess moral faculties, moral objects alone can satisfy 
them ; and mere wealth is not such an object. 

When the aim of life is to communicate enjoyment to 
other beings, such as a family, relatives, or fellow-citizens, 



24 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. n. 



and when Acquisitiveness is employed, under the guidance 
of moral sentiment and intellect, for the purpose of accom- 
plishing this end, success will generally be obtained, and 
satisfaction will accompany it ; because through the whole 
course of life the highest powers will have pursued a noble 
and dignified object, fitted for their gratification, and will 
have employed Acquisitiveness in its proper and sub- 
ordinate capacity as their ministering servant. The facul- 
ties will have acted in harmonious combination. 

I have mentioned that every faculty has a legitimate 
sphere of activity, and that happiness and duty consist in 
the proper application of them all. If we add to this the 
principle that we cannot attain the rewards or the ad- 
vantages attached to the proper employment of any faculty 
unless we apply it, we shall have another example illus- 
trative of the order of the moral government of the world. 

For instance, as Providence has rendered property essen- 
tial to our existence and welfare, and has given us a faculty 
prompting us to acquire it ; if any individual born without 
fortune shall neglect to exercise Acquisitiveness, and shall 
abandon himself, as his leading occupation, to the gratifi- 
cation of Benevolence and Veneration, in gratuitously 
managing public hospitals, in directing charity schools, or 
in preaching to the poor, he will suffer evil consequences. 
He must live on charity, or starve. In such a case, Bene- 
volence and Veneration act without allowing due weight to 
the duties which Acquisitiveness is appointed by Nature 
to perform. 

Moreover, in pursuing such a course of action, he neglects 
justice as a regular motive ; for if he had listened to Con- 
scientiousness, it would have dictated to him the necessity 
either of making these pursuits his profession, and of acting 
for hire, or of practising another profession, and following 
them only in intervals of leisure. St. Paul, in similar 
circumstances, wrought with his hands and made tents, 
that he might be burdensome to no one. 

The practical idea which I wish to fix in your minds 
by this example is, that if we pursue objects related ex- 
clusively to Benevolence and Veneration, although we may 
obtain them, we shall not thereby attain objects related to 
Acquisitiveness ; and yet, that the world is so arranged 
that we must attend to the objects of all our faculties 
before we can properly discharge our duties or be happy. 

Not only so ; but there are modes appointed in Nature by 



lect. II.] THE SANCTIONS OF THE MORAL LAWS. 25 

which the objects of our different faculties may be attained, 
by pursuing which we are rewarded with success, and by 
neglecting which we are punished with failure. The object 
of Acquisitiveness, for example, is to acquire things of use. 
But these cannot be reared from the ground, nor con- 
structed by the hand, nor imported from abroad in exchange 
for other commodities, without a great expenditure of 
time, labour, and skill. Their value indeed is, in general, 
measured by the time, labour, and skill expended in their 
production. 

The great law, then, which God has prescribed to govern 
Acquisitiveness, and by observing which He promises it 
success, is that we shall practise patient, laborious, and 
skilful exertion in endeavouring to attain its objects. " The 
hand of the diligent maketh rich" is the law of Nature. 
When, however, men, losing sight of this Divine law, resort 
to gaming and speculation, to thieving, cheating, and 
plundering, in order to acquire property, when "they hasten 
to become rich," they " fall into a snare." 

Euin is the natural result of such conduct ; because, 
according to Nature, wealth can be produced only by labour ; 
and although one acute, or strong, or powerful man may 
acquire wealth by cheating or plundering twenty or thirty 
honest and industrious neighbours, yet, as a general rule, 
their combined sagacity and strength will, in the end, 
defeat and punish him ; while if all, or even the majority, 
of men were to endeavour to procure wealth by mere 
speculation, stealing, and swindling, there would speedily 
be no wealth to acquire. 

The Scripture authoritatively declares, " Thou shalt not 
steal ; " but when a man with strong Acquisitiveness and 
defective Conscientiousness enters into a great mercantile 
community in which he sees vast masses of property daily 
changing hands, he often does not perceive the force of the 
prohibition. On the contrary, he thinks that he may, with 
manifest advantage, speculate, lie, cheat, swindle, perhaps 
steal, as a more speedy and effectual means of acquir- 
ing a share of that wealth, than by practising laborious 
industry. 

Nevertheless, this must be a delusion ; because, although 
God does not state the reason why He prohibits stealing, it 
is certain that there must exist a reason replete with 
wisdom. He leaves it to human sagacity to discover the 
philosophy of the precept j and it is the duty of the Christian 



26 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. n. 



teacher and the moral philosopher to unfold to the under- 
standings of the young why it is disadvantageous, as well as 
sinful, to break the commandments of God. 

When the philosophy of the practical precepts of the New 
Testament shall be taught in schools, in the domestic circle, 
and from the pulpit, the whole power of intellectual 
conviction will be added to the authority of Scripture 
in enforcing them, and men will probably be induced, by 
a clear perception of their own interest in this world, as 
well as by their hopes and fears in relation to the next, 
to yield obedience to the laws of their Creator. What a 
glorious theme will such a philosophy afford to vigorous 
and enlightened minds for the instruction of the people ! 

If we look at the living world only in the mass, without 
knowing the distinct existence of the mental faculties, their 
distinct objects and their distinct laws, the results of their 
activity appear to be enveloped in painful confusion. We 
see some moral and religious men struggling with poverty, 
and others prosperous in their outward circumstances ; some 
rich men extremely unhappy, while others are apparently 
full of enjoyment ; some poor men joyous and gay, others 
miserable and repining ; some irreligious men in possession 
of vast wealth, while others are destitute of even the neces- 
saries of life. In short, the moral world appears to be one 
great chaos — a scene full of confusion, intricacy, and con- 
tradiction. 

But if we become acquainted with the primitive faculties, 
and their objects and laws, and learn that different indivi- 
duals possess them from Nature in different degrees of strength , 
and also cultivate them with different degrees of assiduity, 
and that the consequences of our actions bear an established 
relation to the faculties employed, the mystery clears up. 

Let us now take a brief and comprehensive survey of the 
point at which we have arrived. 

If we are told that a certain person is extremely pious, 
benevolent, and just, we are entitled to conclude that he 
will experience within himself great peace, joy, and comfort 
from his own dispositions. We are entitled, further, to be- 
lieve that he will be esteemed and beloved by all good men 
who know him thoroughly, and that they will be disposed 
to promote by every legitimate means his welfare and 
happiness, because his mental qualities naturally excite 
into activity corresponding faculties in other men, and 
create a sympathetic interest on their part in his enjoyment. 



LECT. II.] THE SANCTIONS OF THE MORAL LAWS. 27 



But if we hear that this good man has been upset in a 
coach, and has broken his leg, we conclude that this event 
has arisen from neglect of a physical law, which, being 
independent of the moral law, acted without direct re- 
lation to his mental qualities. If we hear that he is 
sick, we conclude that in some organ of his body there has 
been a departure from the laws which regulate healthy 
action and (these laws also being distinct) that the sick- 
ness has no direct relation to his moral condition. If we 
are told that he is healthy and happy ?> we infer that his 
organic system is acting in accordance with the laws of its 
constitution. 

If, on the other hand, we know a man who is palpably 
cold-hearted, grasping, and selfish, we are authorised to 
conclude — first, that he is deprived of that delicious sun- 
shine of the soul, and of all those thrilling sympathies with 
whatever is noble, beautiful, and holy, which attend the 
vivacious action of the moral and religious faculties ; and 
secondly, that he is deprived of the reflected influence of 
the same emotions from the hearts and countenances of the 
good men around him. 

These are the direct punishments in this world for his 
not exercising his moral and religious powers. But if he 
have inherited a fine constitution, and if he be temperate, 
sober, and take regular exercise, he may reap the blessing 
of health, which he will enjoy as the reward of his compli- 
ance with the organic laws. There is no inconsistency in 
this enjoyment being permitted to him, because the moral 
and organic laws are distinct, and he has obeyed the laws 
which reward him. If his children have received from him 
a sound frame, and have been treated prudently and skil- 
fully, they also may live in health ; but this, again, is the 
consequence of obedience to the same laws. If they have 
inherited feeble constitutions, or if they have been reared 
in a manner inconsistent with these laws, they will die, just 
as the children of good men in similar circumstances will 
perish. If the selfish man pursue wealth according to the 
laws that regulate its acquisition, he will by that obedience 
become rich ; but if he neglect to exercise Acquisitiveness, 
or if he infringe these laws, he will become poor, just 
as the good man would become in similar circumstances. 

It appears to me that in these arrangements we see the 
dictates of our whole faculties, when acting in har- 
monious combination, supported by the order of external 



23 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. II. 



nature ; and hence we obtain evidence of an actual moral 
government existing in full force and activity in this 
world. 

According to this view, instead of there being confusion 
and a lack of justice in the Divine administration of human 
affairs, there is the reverse — there is a reward for every 
species of obedience and a punishment for every species of 
disobedience to the Creator's laws. And, as if to preserve 
our minds habitually under the impression of discipline, 
our duties correspond to the different parts of our constitu- 
tion, rewards and chastisements are annexed to each of 
them, and so little of favouritism or of partiality is shown 
that, although we obey all the natural laws but one, we do 
not escape the punishment of infringing that single law ; 
and although we break them all but one, we are not denied 
the reward of that solitary instance of obedience. 



29 



LECTURE III. 

Man as an Individual. 

Having in the previous Lectures considered what makes an 
action right or wrong, and also the punishments which 
attend neglect of duty, and the rewards which performance 
brings along with it, I proceed to remark that the views 
there unfolded correspond, to some extent, with those 
entertained by Bishop Butler, and which he has adopted as 
the groundwork of his treatise on the " Analogy of Natural 
and Revealed Religion." 

"Now," says he, "in the present state, all which we 
enjoy, and a great part of what we suffer, is put in our own 
power. For pleasure and pain are the consequences of our 
actions, and we are endued by the Author of our nature 
with capacities of foreseeing these consequences. I know 
not that we have any one kind or degree of enjoyment but 
by the means of our own actions. And by prudence and care 
we may, for the most part, pass our days in tolerable ease and 
quiet ; or, on the contrary, we may, by rashness, ungoverned 
passion, wilfulness, or even by negligence, make ourselves 
as miserable as ever we please. And many do please to 
make themselves extremely miserable : i.e., they do what 
they know beforehand will render them so. They follow 
those ways the fruit of which they know, by instruction, 
example, experience, will be disgrace, and poverty, and 
sickness, and untimely death. This every one observes to be 
the general course of things ; though, it is to be allowed, we 
cannot find by experience that all our sufferings are owing 
to our own follies." (Part I. Chap. II.) 

The common sense of mankind yields a ready assent to 
this doctrine. We go further than Bishop Butler by 
showing the natural arrangements according to which the 
consequences mentioned by him take place. This is a point 
of material moment in philosophy ; and it leads me to re- 
mark that one difference between the expositions of moral 
science which have been presented by preceding inquirers, 
and that which I am now endeavouring to elucidate, consists 
in this — that hitherto, moralists generally have laid down 
precepts without showing their foundation in our consti- 



30 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect, m. 



tution, or the mode in which disregard of them is punished 
by the ordinary operation of natural causes. They were 
imperfectly acquainted with the constitution of the mind 
and with the independent operation of the different natural 
laws, and, in consequence, they failed in this branch of their 
subject. In their expositions of Moral Philosophy they 
resemble those who teach us to practise an art without 
explaining the scientific principles on which the practice is 
founded. 

In practical life we are . ourselves active beings, and we 
are constantly influenced by agents whose original ten- 
dencies and capacities differ from each other — who are placed 
in varying circumstances, and who are acted on and excited 
or impeded by other beings. It is a knowledge of their 
nature alone that can enable us to understand the phenomena 
of such beings occurring under the diversified circumstances 
in which they are placed. 

Moreover, when we know the reason why a particular 
line of conduct should be adopted, and the way in which 
reward is connected with performance and punishment 
with neglect, there is a higher probability of the duty being 
discharged than when a precept is our only motive to action. 
Mere rules may be apprehended and practised by ordinary 
minds ; but to understandings ignorant of their foundations 
and sanctions in nature, their importance and authority are 
far from being so evident as to carry with them a deep sense 
of obligation. 

Although the natural laws act separately and indepen- 
dently, certain relations have been established between 
them which tend to support the authority of the whole. 
In consequence of these relations, obedience to each law 
increases our ability to observe the others, and disobedience 
to one diminishes, to some extent, our aptitude for paying 
deference to the rest. 

The man, for example, who obeys the physical laws avoids 
physical injury and suffering, and gains all the advantages 
arising from living in accordance with inanimate nature. 
He consequently places himself in a favourable condition 
for observing the organic, the moral, and the intellectual 
laws. 

By obeying the organic laws, he ensures the possession of 
vigorous health ; and when we view the muscular system 
of man as the instrument provided by the Creator for 
operating on physical nature, and the brain as the means of 



LECT. III.] 



MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 



31 



acting on sentient and intelligent beings, we discover that 
organic health is a fundamental requisite of usefulness 
and enjoyment. We are led to see that the possession of 
it contributes, in the highest degree, to our obeying the 
physical laws, and also to our discharging our active duties : 
in other words, to our obeying the laws of morality and 
intellect. 

General obedience to the organic laws also, by preserving 
the body in a favourable condition of health, fits it for 
recovering in the best manner from the effects of injuries 
sustained by inadvertent infringement of the physical 
laws. Disobedience of the organic laws, on the other 
hand, unfits us for obeying the other laws of our being. 

A student, for instance, who impairs his^ brain and 
digestive organs by excessive mental application and by 
neglect of exercise, weakens his nervous and muscular 
systems, in consequence of which he becomes feeble and 
incapable of sustained bodily exertion : in other words, of 
coping with the law of gravitation, without suffering pain 
and fatigue. He is also more liable to disease. 

If we obey the various laws instituted by the Creator, 
we find that they act harmoniously for our welfare, that they 
support each other, and that the world becomes a clear field 
for the active and pleasurable exercise of all our powers ; 
while if we infringe one, not only does it punish us for the 
special act of disobedience, but the offence has the tendency 
to impair, to some extent, our power of obeying the others. 
We thus discover in the natural laws a system of indepen- 
dent, yet of combined and harmonious, action, admirably 
adapted to the mind of a being who has received not only 
observing faculties, fitted to study existing things and their 
phenomena, but who has also reflecting intellect, calculated 
to comprehend their relations, adaptations, and reciprocal 
influences. 

Thus, the first step in comprehending the principles of 
the Divine government is to learn to look on the physical 
world as it actually exists, and not through the medium 
of a perverted imagination or of erroneous assumptions ; 
and the second is to compare it with the constitution of 
man, physical and mental, as designedly adapted to it. We 
shall find that it is not an elysium, and we know that we 
are not angels ; but we shall discover that while the heavens 
declare the glory of the Creator, and the revolving firma- 
ment of suns and worlds proclaims His might, the elements 



S2 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. nz. 



and powers of man's mind and body, viewed in their 
tendencies and adaptations, bespeak, in a language equally 
clear and emphatic, His intelligence, beneficence, and 
justice. 

Having thus expounded the general system of the Divine 
government, let us now consider the duties prescribed to us 
by our constitution and its relations. 

Descending to particular duties, we may first consider 
those prescribed to man as an individual by his own con- 
stitution and that of the external creation. 

The constitution of man seems to show that the object of 
his existence on earth is to discharge certain duties, to 
advance in knowledge, refinement, beneficence, and holiness ; 
and thereby to enjoy his being. Divines add that another 
object is to " glorify God." According to my view, obedience 
to the Divine laws— or performance of our duties — is the 
prime requisite ; enjoyment is the natural accompaniment 
of this conduct ; and the glory of God is evolved as the 
result of these two combined. His wisdom and power are 
strikingly conspicuous when we discover a system, ap- 
parently complicated, to be, in fact, simple, clear, beautiful, 
and beneficent ; and when we behold His rational creatures 
comprehending His will, acting in harmony with it, reaping 
all the enjoyments which His goodness intended for them, 
and ascending in the scale of being by the cultivation and 
improvement of their nobler powers, the glory of God 
appears surpassingly great. 

A deep conviction thence arises, that the only means by 
which we can advance that glory is to promote, where 
possible, the fulfilment of the Creator's beneficent designs, 
and sedulously to co-operate in the execution of His plans. 
When the object of human existence is regarded in this 
light, it becomes evident that obedience to every natural 
law is a positive duty imposed on us by the Creator, and 
that infringement or neglect of it is a sin or transgression 
against His will. 

Hence we do not promote the glory of God by singing 
His praises, by offering up prayers at His throne, and by per- 
forming other devotional exercises, if, at the same time, we 
shut our eyes to His natural institutions, neglect His physical, 
organic, and moral laws, and act in direct contradiction to 
His plan of government, presenting ourselves before Him 
as spectacles of pain and misfortune, suffering the punish- 
ment of our infringements of His institutions, and ascribing 



LECT. III.] 



MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 



33 



those lamentable consequences of our own ignorance and folly 
to inherent imperfections in the world which He has made. 

Every law of God, however proclaimed ^ to us, has an 
equal claim to observance ; and as religion consists in 
revering God and obeying His will, it is evident that the 
discharge of our daily secular duties is literally the fulfil- 
ment of an essential part of our religious obligations. 

It is only by presenting before the Creator our bodies in 
as complete a condition of health and vigour, our minds as 
thoroughly disciplined to virtue and holiness, and as replete 
with knowledge, and, in consequence, our whole -being as 
full of enjoyment as our constitution will admit, that we 
can really show forth His goodness and glory. 

If these ideas be founded in nature, the first duty of man 
as an individual is obviously to acquire knowledge of him- 
self and of God's laws, in whatever record these are con- 
tained. I infer this to be a duty, because I perceive 
intellectual powers bestowed on man, obviously intended 
for the purpose of acquiring knowledge ; a wide range of 
action permitted to all his powers, corporeal and mental, 
with pleasure annexed to the use and pain to the abuse 
of them ; and a liability to suffer by the influence of the 
objects and beings around him, unless, by means of know- 
ledge, he accommodate his conduct to their qualities and 
action. He has only one alternative presented to him— of 
using his reason or of enduring evil. 

It has too rarely been inculcated that the gaining of know- 
ledge is a moral duty ; yet, if our constitution be so framed 
that we cannot securely enjoy life and discharge our duties 
as parents and as members of society without it, and if a 
capacity for acquiring it has been bestowed on us, its 
acquisition is obviously commanded by the Creator as a 
duty of the highest moment. The kind of knowledge which 
we are bound to acquire is clearly that of God's will and 
laws. It is the office of divines to instruct you in the duties 
prescribed in the Bible, and of philosophers to teach the 
department of nature. 

The ignorant man suffers many inconveniences and dis- 
tresses, to which he submits as inevitable dispensations of 
Providence. His own health perhaps fails him ; his children 
are perverse and disobedient ; his trade is unsuccessful ; 
and he regards all these as visitations from God, or as 
examples of the chequered lot of man on earth. If he be 
religious, he prays for a spirit of resignation, and directs his 

D 



34 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. nr. 

hopes to heaven ; but if the foregoing view of the Divine 
administration be sound, he should ascribe his sufferings, 
in great part, to his own ignorance of the scheme of creation, 
and to his non-compliance with its rules. In addition to 
his religious duties, he should, therefore, fulfil the natural 
conditions appointed by the Creator as antecedents to 
happiness; and then he may expect a blessing on his 
exertions and on his life. 

Important, however, as the knowledge of nature thus 
appears to be, it is surprising how recently the efficient 
study of it has begun. It is not more than three centuries 
since the very dawn of inductive philosophy ; and some of 
the greatest scientific discoveries have been made within 
the last fifty or sixty years. These facts tell us plainly that 
the race of man, like the individual, is progressive ; that it 
has its infancy and youth : and that we who now exist 
live only in the dayspring of intelligence. In Europe and 
America the race may be viewed as putting forth the early 
blossoms of its rational existence, while the greater part of 
the world lies buried in utter darkness. Even in Europe 
it is only the more gifted minds that see and appreciate 
their true position. These, from the Pisgah of knowledge, 
gaze upon the promised land of virtue and happiness 
stretched out before their intellectual eye; although it is 
too remote to admit of their entrance on its soil, yet it lies 
sufficiently near to permit them to descry its beauty and 
luxuriance. 

If the study of Nature and of Nature's laws be our first 
duty as rational and accountable beings, a moment's re- 
flection will satisfy you that the instruction hitherto generally 
given even to the young of the higher ranks has been 
unavailing for purposes of practical utility. If a boy be 
taught the structure, uses, and laws of action of the lungs, 
he will be furnished with motives for avoiding sudden 
transitions of temperature, excessive bodily and mental 
exertion, and sleeping in ill- ventilated rooms ; for improv- 
ing the purity of the air in his native city ; for constructing 
churches, theatres, lecture-rooms, and all places of public 
resort, in accordance with the laws of the human constitu- 
tion in regard to temperature and ventilation : in short, this 
knowledge will enable him to avoid much evil and to 
accomplish much practical good. 

If he do not acquire that knowledge, he will be exposed, 
in consequence of his ignorance, to suffer from many of these. 



LECT. III.] 



MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 



35 



external influences, operating injuriously both on his body 
and on his mind. If, on the other hand, he be taught that 
Romulus and Remus were suckled by a she-wolf ; that 
iEneas was the son of Venus, who was the goddess of love ; 
that in Tartarus were three Furies, called Alecto, Tisiphone, 
and Megyera, who sent wars and pestilence on earth, and 
punished the wicked after death with whips of scorpions ; 
that Jupiter was the son of Saturn, and the chief among 
all the gods ; that he dwelt on Mount Olympus, and em- 
ployed one-eyed giants, called Cyclops, whose workshop was 
in the heart of Mount iEtna, to forge thunderbolts, which 
he threw down on the world when he was angry — the youth 
learns mere poetical fancies, often abundantly ridiculous 
and absurd, which lead to no useful actions. As all the 
personages of the heathen mythology existed only in the 
imaginations of poets and sculptors, they are not entities or 
agents ; and they do not operate in any way whatever on 
human enjoyment. But if we neglect the study of God's 
laws, evil and misery most certainly ensue. 

These observations, however, are not to be understood as 
an unqualified denunciation of classical learning. The 
sentiment of Ideality finds gratification in poetic fictions ; 
but it is absurd to cultivate it 5 and the faculty of Language, 
to the exclusion of others not less important. Besides, 
it must be kept in view that in the pages of the Book of 
Nature, as well as in those of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid, 
ample materials are to be found for the cultivation and 
gratification of a refined taste. 

The religious teachers of mankind also, in the education 
of their flocks, have too generally omitted instruction in the 
natural laws of God. The pastors of every sect have been 
more anxious to instil into the minds of the young peculiar 
views of religious faith than a correct and practical know- 
ledge of the Divine wisdom and will inscribed in the Book of 
Nature. In consequence, even the best educated classes are, 
in general, very imperfectly informed regarding Nature, her 
laws, and her rewards and punishments. They have been 
instructed in classical literature, composed chiefly of elegant 
and ingenious fables. A certain portion of the people at 
large has been taught to read and write, but has been left at 
that point to grope their way to knowledge without teachers, 
without books, and without encouragement or countenance 
from their superiors ; while countless multitudes have been 
left without any education whatever. 
d 2 



36 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. III. 



As individuals, our sphere of intellectual vision is so 
limited that we have great difficulty in discovering the in- 
dispensable necessity of knowledge to the discharge of our 
duties, and to the promotion of our happiness. We are too 
apt to believe that our lot is immutably fixed, and that we 
can do extremely little to change or to improve it. We feel 
as if we were overruled by a destiny too strong for our 
limited powers to control; and, as if to give strength and 
permanence to this impression, the man of the world asks us, 
What benefit could scientific information confer on the 
labourer, whose duty consists in digging ditches, in breaking 
stones, or in carrying loads all day long ; and when the clay 
is gone, whose only remaining occupation is to eat and to 
sleep ? Or of what use is information concerning Nature's 
laws to the shopkeeper, whose duty in life is to manage his 
small trade, to pay his bills punctually, and to collect 
sharply his outstanding debts ? 

If these were all the duties of the labourer and of the 
shopkeeper, the man of the world would be right. But we 
discover in the individuals to whom these duties are allotted 
faculties capable of far higher aims ; and Nature points out 
the necessity of cultivating them. The scheme of life of the 
day-labourer and of the shopkeeper, as now cast, is far short 
of the improvement w^hich it is capable of reaching, and 
which it was evidently designed to attain. It does not 
afford scope for the exercise of their noblest and best gifts ; 
and it does not favour the steady advance of these classes as 
moral, religious, and intellectual beings. 

The objector assumes that they have already reached the 
limits of their possible attainments ; and if the case were so, 
the conclusion might be sound that science is useless to 
them. But if they be at present far from enjoying the full 
sweets of existence ; if the whole order of social life, and 
their condition in it, be capable of vast amelioration ; and if 
the knowledge of ourselves and of Nature be a means of 
producing these advantages : then the duty of acquiring 
knowledge is at once fundamental and paramount — it lies at 
the foundation of all improvement. If the mass of the 
people be destined never to rise above their present con- 
dition of ignorance, suffering, and toil, we must abandon the 
idea that the attributes of justice and benevolence are 
manifested by God in this world. 

I am anxious to press this idea earnestly on your con- 
sideration, because it appears to me to constitute the grand 



LECT. m.] 



MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 



37 



difference between the old and the new philosophy. The 
characteristic feature of the old philosophy, founded on the 
knowledge, not of man's nature, but of his political history, 
is that Providence intended different lots for men (a point 
which the new T philosophy concedes) ; and that, in the Divine 
appointment of conditions, the millions or masses of the 
people were destined to act the part only of industrious 
ministers to the physical wants of society, while a favoured 
few were meant to be the sole recipients of knowledge and 
refinement. * 

According to that philosophy, therefore, it is not a duty 
imposed on every individual to exercise his intellectual 
powers in extending his acquaintance with Nature. On the 
contrary, according to it, a working-man fulfils his destiny 
when he becomes master of his trade, acquires a knowledge 
of his moral and religious duties from the Bible, and quietly 
practises them, rears a family of labourers, and, unmoved by 
ambition, unenlightened by science, and unrefined by ac- 
complishments, sinks into the grave in a good old age, to 
give place to an endless succession of beings like himself. 
Human nature was viewed as stationary, or at least was 
regarded as depending for its advance on Providence or on 
the higher classes, and in no degree on humbler men. 

The new philosophy, on the other hand, which is founded 
on a knowledge of man's nature, admits the allotment of 
distinct conditions to different individuals, because it recog- 
nises differences in their mental and bodily endowments. 
But, in surveying the human faculties, it discovers that all 
men possess, in a greater or a less degree, powers of obser- 
vation and reflection adapted to the study of Nature ; the 
sentiment of Ideality prompting them to desire refinement 
and perfect institutions ; the feeling of Benevolence longing 
for universal happiness ; the sentiment of Conscientiousness 
rejoicing injustice ; and emotions of Hope, Veneration, and 
Wonder causing the glow of religious devotion to spring up 
in their souls, and their whole being to love, worship, and 
obey the beneficent Author of their existence. 

It proclaims that beings so gifted were not destined to 
exist as mere animated machinery, liable to be superseded 
at every stage of their lives by the steam-engine, the pulley, 
or the lever ; but were clearly intended to advance in their 
mental attainments, and to rise higher and higher in the 
scale of intelligence, virtue, and happiness. 

This conclusion is irresistible if the general idea of the 



3S 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. m. 



Divine administration, communicated in the previous Lec- 
ture, be sound : viz., that all the evolutions of physical nature 
proceed under fixed, independent, and harmonious laws. 
Under such a system, the Creator speaks forth from every 
element, and proclaims that every human being must ac- 
quire knowledge or must suffer evil. As it is not probable 
that the Creator has bestowed capacities and desires on His 
creatures which their inevitable condition renders it im- 
possible for them to cultivate and gratify, we may reasonably 
presume that the fulfilment of every necessary duty is com- 
patible with enlarged mental attainments in the race. It is 
delightful to perceive that these views are gaining ground, 
and are daily more and more advocated by the Press. 

I conclude this Lecture by observing that the duty of ac- 
quiring knowledge implies that of communicating it to 
others when attained ; and there is no form in which the 
humblest individual may do more good, or assist more 
effectually in promoting the improvement and happiness of 
mankind, than in teaching them truth and its applications. 
Iieel that I lie under a moral obligation to communicate to 
you the knowledge concerning the natural laws of the 
Creator which my own mind has been permitted to discover. 
I learn that other instructors of the people have considered 
it to be their duty to denounce, as dangerous, the know- 
ledge which is here communicated, and to warn you against 
it* But I am not moved by such declamations. What I 
teach you, I believe to be truth inscribed by the hand of 
God in the Book of Nature ; and I have never been able to 
understand what is meant by a dangerous truth. 

All natural truth is simply knowledge of what the Creator 
has instituted; and it savours of impiety, and not of 
reverence, to stigmatise it as injurious. The very opposite 
is the fact. Lord Bacon has truly said that " there are, 
besides the authority of Scripture, two reasons of exceeding 
great weight and force why religion should dearly protect 
all increase of natural knowledge : the one, because it leads 
to the greater exaltation of the glory of God ; for, as the 

* These Lectures were reported in one of the newspapers in E&ld - 
burgh, and during the delivery of them, more than one of the clergy of 
the Established Church preached sermons against them. The audience 
to whom they were addressed belong to that class of society over whom 
the clergy exercise the most powerful influence, and this appeal 
appeared to be called for to induce them to continue their attendance. 
In this respect it was successful. 



lect. in.] MAN AS AN INDIVIDUAL. 



39 



Psalms and other Scriptures do often invite us to consider 
and to magnify the great and wonderful works of God, so if 
we should rest only in the contemplation of those which 
first offer themselves to our senses, we should do a like 
injury to the majesty of God as if we should judge of the 
store of some excellent jeweller by that only which is set 
out to the street in his shop. The other reason is, because 
it is a singular help, and a preservative against unbelief and 
error ; for, says our Saviour, ye do err, not knowing the 
Scriptures nor the power of God ; laying before us two books 
or volumes to study, if we will be secured from error — first, 
the Scriptures, revealing the will of God ; and then the 
creatures, expressing His power." We have seen, however, 
that not the power of God only, but also His will, is ex- 
pressed in the constitution of " the creatures ; 33 and hence a 
double reason becomes manifest why it is our duty to study 
them. 

I advance here, for your acceptance, no propositions based 
on the authority of my own discernment alone ; but I 
submit them all to your scrutiny and judgment. I enable 
you, as far as in me lies, to detect the errors into which 
I may inadvertently have fallen, and I ask you to embrace 
only the ideas which seem to be supported by evidence and 
reason. We are told by a great authority to judge of all 
things by their fruits ; and by this test I leave the 
doctrines of this philosophy to stand or fall. What are the 
effects of them on your minds 1 Do you feel your concep- 
tions of the Deity circumscribed and debased by the views 
which I have presented — or, on the contrary, purified and 
exalted ? 

In the simplicity, adaptations, and harmony of Nature's 
laws, do you not recognise positive and tangible proof of 
the omniscience and omnipotence of the Creator — a solemn 
and impressive lesson, that in every moment of our exist- 
ence we live, and move, and have our being, supported by 
His power, rewarded by His goodness, and restrained by 
His justice ? Does not this sublime idea of the continual 
presence of God now cease to be a vague, and therefore 
a cold and barren, conception ? and does it not, through the 
medium of the natural laws, become a deep-felt, encouraging, 
and controlling reality ? Do your understandings revolt 
from such a view of creation as ill adapted to a moral, 
religious, and intelligent being ? or do they ardently embrace 
it, and leap with joy at light evolving itself from the moral 



40 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. m. 



chaos, and exhibiting order and beauty, authority and rule, 
in a vast domain where previously darkness, perplexity, 
and doubt prevailed ? 

Let the tree, I say, be known by its fruits. Look to 
heaven, and see if the doctrines which I teach have circum- 
scribed or darkened the attributes of the Supreme ; then 
turn your contemplation inwards, and examine whether 
they have degraded or exalted — chilled or inspired with 
humble confidence and hope — the soul which God has 
given you ; and by your verdict, pronounced after this con- 
sideration, let the fate of the doctrines be sealed. In teach- 
ing them, be it repeated, I consider myself to be discharging 
a moral duty ; and no frown of men will tempt me to shrink 
from proceeding in such a course. If my exposition of the 
Divine government be true, it is a noble vocation to proclaim 
it to the world : for the knowledge of it must be fraught 
with blessings and enjoyment to man. If you participate 
in these sentiments, let us advance, and fear not — encouraged 
by the assurance that if this doctrine be of man it will 
come to nought, but that if it be of God, no human authority 
can prevail against it ! 



41 



LECTUBE IV. 

PRESERVING HEALTH, A DUTY. 

The next duty of man, as an individual, is to apply his know- 
ledge in preserving himself in health, bodily and mental. 
Without health, he is unfit for the successful discharge 
of his duties. It is so advantageous and agreeable to enjoy 
sound health, that many persons will exclaim, " No prophet 
is needed to inform us that it is our duty and our interest 
sedulously to guard it : " but many who treat thus lightly 
the general injunction are grievously deficient in practical 
knowledge how to carry it into effect. It is true that every 
man in his senses takes care not to fall into the fire or to 
walk into a pool of water ; but how many valuable lives are 
put in jeopardy by sitting in wet clothes, by overtasking 
the brain in study or in the cares of business, by too fre- 
quently repeated convivialities, or by other habits that sap 
the foundations of health ! 

In tracing to their source the calamities which arise to 
families and individuals from bad health and untimely 
death, attended by deep laceration of their feelings and 
numerous privations, it is surprising how many of them 
may be discovered to arise from slight but long-continued 
deviations from the dictates of the organic laws. These 
were apparently so trivial at first that scarcely any injurious, 
or even disagreeable, result was observed ; nevertheless, they 
were from the beginning important errors, the injurious 
consequences of which constantly increased. 

Perhaps the victim had an ardent mind, and, under the 
impulse of a laudable ambition to excel in his profession, 
studied with so much intensity, and for such long periods 
in succession, that he overtasked his brain and ruined his 
health. His parents and relations, equally ignorant with 
himself of the organic laws, were rejoicing at his diligence, 
and forming fond expectations of the brilliant future that 
must, in their estimation, await one so gifted in virtuous 
feeling, in intellect, and in industry ; when suddenly he 
was seized with fever, with inflammation, or with consump- 
tion, and in a few days or weeks was carried to the 
tomb. 



42 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IV. 



Another cause by which health and life are frequently 
destroyed is occasional reckless conduct, pursued in ignorance 
of the laws of the human constitution. Take as an example 
the following case, which I have elsewhere given : — A young 
man in a public office, after many months of sedentary occu- 
pations, went to the country on a shooting excursion, where 
he exhausted himself by muscular exertion, of which his 
previous habits had rendered him little capable ; he went 
to bed feverish, and perspired much during the night ; next 
day he came to Edinburgh, unprotected by a great-coat, on 
the outside of a very early coach : his skin was chilled, the 
perspiration was checked, the blood received an undue de- 
termination to the interior vital organs, disease was excited 
in the lungs, and within a few weeks he was consigned 
to the grave. 

The great requisite of health is the preservation of all the 
leading organs of the body in a condition of regular and 
proportionate activity ; to allow none to become too languid, 
and none too active. The result of this harmonious activity 
is a pleasing consciousness of existence, experienced when 
the mind is withdrawn from all exciting objects and is turned 
inward on its own feelings. A philosophical friend once 
remarked to me that he never considered himself to be 
in complete health except when he was able to place his 
feet firmly on the turf, his hands hanging carelessly by 
his sides, his eyes wandering over space, and thus cir- 
cumstanced, to feel such agreeable sensations arising in 
his mere bodily frame that he could raise his mind to 
heaven, and thank God that he was a living man. This 
description of the quiet, pleasing enjoyment which accom- 
panies complete health appears to me to be admirable. 

It can hardly be doubted that the Creator intended that 
the mere play of our bodily organs should yield us pleasure. 
It is probable that this is the chief gratification enjoyed by 
the inferior animals ; and although we have received the 
high gift of reason, it does not necessarily follow that that 
should deprive us of the delights which our organic nature 
is fairly calculated to afford. 

How different is the enjoyment which I have described, 
arising from the temperate, active, harmonious play of 
every bodily function, from sensual pleasure, which results 
from the abuse of a few of our bodily appetites, and is 
followed by lasting pain ; and yet so perverted < are human 
notions, in consequence of ignorance and vicious habits, 



lect. IV.] PRESERVING HEALTH, A DUTY. 43 



that thousands attach no idea to the phrase bodily pleasure 
but that of sensual indulgence. The pleasurable feelings 
springing from health are delicate and refined. They are 
the supports and the rewards of virtue, and are altogether 
incompatible with vicious gratification of the appetites. 

So widely clo the habits of civilised life depart from the 
standards of nature, that I fear this enjoyment is known, in 
its full exquisiteness, to comparatively few. Too many of 
us, when we direct our attention to our bodily sensations, 
experience only feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and discon- 
tent, which make us fly to an external pursuit that we 
may escape from ourselves. This undefined uneasiness is 
the result of slight, but extensive, derangement of the 
vital functions, and is the prelude of disease. The causes 
of these uneasy feelings may be traced in our erroneous 
habits, occupations, and physical condition ; and until 
society shall become so enlightened as to adopt extensive 
improvements in all these particulars, there is no jjrospect 
of their termination. 

It is instructive to compare with our own the modes of 
life of the lower animals, whose actions and habits are 
directly prompted and regulated by the Creator, by means 
of their instincts ; because, in all circumstances in which 
our constitution closely resembles theirs, their conduct is 
really a lesson read to us by the Allwise Himself. If, then, 
we survey them attentively, we observe that they are 
incited to a course of action calculated to produce har- 
monious activity in all their vital organs, and thus to ensure 
their possession of health. 

Animals in a state of nature are remarkably cleanly in 
their habits. You must have observed the feathered tribes 
dressing their plumage and washing themselves in the 
brooks. The domestic cat is most careful to preserve a 
clean, sleek, glossy skin ; the clog rolls himself on grass or 
straw ; and the horse, when grazing, does the same, if he 
has not enjoyed the luxury of being well curried. The sow, 
although our standard of comparison for dirt, is not deserv- 
ing of this character. It is invariably clean wherever it is 
possible for it to be so ; and its bad reputation arises from 
its masters too frequently leaving it no sphere of existence 
except dunghills and other receptacles of filth. In a stable- 
yard, where there is abundance of clean straw, the sleeping- 
place of the sow is unsoiled, and the creature makes great 
efforts to preserve it in this condition. 



44 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. rv. 



Again, in a state of nature there has been imposed on 
the inferior animals, in acquiring their food, an extent of 
labour which amounts to a regular exercise of their 
corporeal organs. And lastly, their food has been so ad- 
justed to their constitutions, that without cookery they are 
well nourished, while they are very rarely rendered sick 
through surfeit, or the bad quality of what they eat. 

The animals, I repeat, are impelled directly by the Creator 
to act in the manner now described ; and when we study 
their organisation, and see its close resemblance to the 
human frame, we cannot fail, while admiring the wisdom 
and benevolence displayed in their habits and constitution, 
to draw thence lessons for the regulation of our own. 

Man differs from the brutes in this — that, instead of 
blind instincts, he is furnished with reason, which enables 
him to study himself, the external world, and their mutual 
relations, and to pursue the conduct which these point 
out as beneficial. It is by examining the structure, modes 
of action, and objects of the various parts of his constitu- 
tion, that man discovers what his duties of performance and 
abstinence in regard to health really are. 

This proposition may be illustrated in the following 
manner. The skin has innumerable pores, and serves as 
an outlet for the waste particles of the body. The quantity 
of noxious matter excreted through these pores in twenty- 
four hours is, on the very lowest estimate, about twenty-four 
ounces. If the passage of this matter be obstructed so that 
it is retained in the body, the quality of the blood is 
deteriorated by its presence, and the general health, which 
greatly depends on the state of the blood, suffers. The 
nature of perspired matter is such that it is apt, in con- 
sequence of the evaporation of its watery portion, to be 
condensed, and to clog the pores of the skin ; and hence 
the necessity for washing the surface frequently, so as to 
keep the pores open, and to allow perspiration freely to 
proceed. The clothing, moreover, must be so porous and 
clean as readily to absorb and allow a passage to the 
matter perspired ; otherwise, the same result ensues as 
from the impurity of the skin : namely, the arrest or the 
diminution of the process of perspiration. 

Nor is this all. The skin is an absorbing as well as an 
excreting organ, and foreign substances in contact with 
it are sucked into its pores and introduced into the 
blood. When cleanliness is neglected, therefore, the evil 



LECT. IV.J PRESERVING HEALTH, A DUTY. 



45 



consequences are twofold : first, the pores, as we have men- 
tioned, are clogged, and perspiration is obstructed ; and 
secondly, part of the noxious matter left on the skin or 
the clothing is absorbed into the system, where it produces 
hurtful effects. When men become enlightened, attention 
to cleanliness will be regarded as an important duty, akin 
to temperance, honesty, or piety. 

I might, in like manner, describe the structure and modes 
of action of the bones, muscles, blood-vessels, nerves, and 
brain ; and demonstrate to you that the necessity for bodily 
and mental labour, for temperance, for attention to ventila- 
tion, for judicious clothing, and a great variety of other 
observances, is written by the finger of God in the frame- 
work of our bodies. This, however, belongs to Physiology ; 
and here I assume that you have studied and understand 
the leading facts of that subject^ 

I limit myself to two observations. First, exercise of the 
bones and muscles is labour ; and labour, instead of being 
a curse to man, is a positive source of his well-being and 
enjoyment. It is only excessive labour that is painful ; and 
in a well-ordered community there should be no necessity 
for painfully exhausting exertion. Secondly, exercise of the 
brain is synonymous with mental activity, which may be 
intellectual, or moral, or animal, according to the faculties 
which we employ. Mental inactivity, therefore, implies in- 
activity of the brain ; and as the brain is the fountain of 
nervous energy to the whole system, the , punishment of 
neglecting its exercise is great and severe — consisting in 
feelings of lassitude, uneasiness, fear and anxiety, vague 
desires, sleepless nights, and a general consciousness of 
discomfort, with incapacity to escape from suffering; all 
which poison life at its source, and render it thoroughly 
miserable. 

Well-regulated mental activity, combined with clue bodily 
exercise, on the other hand, is rewarded with gay, joyous 
feelings, an inward alacrity to discharge all our duties, a 
good appetite, sound sleep, and a general consciousness of 
happiness that causes days and years to fleet away without 
leaving a trace of physical suffering behind. 

While moderate and proportionate exercise of all the 
bodily and mental functions is essential to health, we must 
be equally careful, in order to preserve this invaluable bless- 
ing, to shun over-exertion and excessive mental excitement. 
Owing to the constitution of British society, it is very 



46 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IV. 



difficult to avoid, in our habitual conduct, one or other of 
the extremes now mentioned. Many persons, born to 
wealth, have feAv motives to exertion ; and such individuals, 
particularly females, often suffer grievously in their health 
and happiness from want of rational objects of pursuit 
calculated to excite and exercise their minds and bodies. 
Others, again, who do not inherit riches from their ancestors, 
are tempted to overtask themselves in acquiring them, and 
frequently to support an expensive style of living, which 
vanity leads them to regard as necessary to social con- 
sideration. 

In opposition to these obvious dictates of reason, two 
objections are generally urged. The first is, that persons 
who are always taking care of their health generally ruin 
it ; their heads are filled with hypochondriacal fancies and 
alarms, and they become habitual valetudinarians. The 
answer to this remark is that all such persons are already 
valetudinarians before they begin to experience the anxiety 
about their health here described ; they are already nervous 
or dyspeptic, the victims of a morbid condition of body 
attended by uneasiness of mind, which last they ascribe to 
the state of their health. 

The second objection is that many persons live in sound 
health to a good old age who never take any care of them- 
selves at all ; whence it is inferred that the safest plan is to 
follow their example, and to act on all occasions as impulse 
prompts, never doubting that our health, if we pursue this 
manly course, will take care of itself. In answer to this 
objection, I observe that constitutions differ widely in the 
amount of their native stamina, and consequently in the 
extent of tear and wear and bad treatment which they are 
able to sustain without being ruined ; and that, for this 
reason, one individual may be comparatively little injured 
by a course of action which would prove fatal to another 
with a feebler natural frame. 

The grand principle of the philosophy which I am now 
teaching is that the natural laws really admit of no ex- 
ceptions ; and that specific causes, sufficient to account for 
the apparent exceptions, exist in every instance. Some of 
these individuals may have enjoyed very robust constitu- 
tions, which it was difficult to subvert ; others may have 
indulged in excesses only at intervals, passing an inter- 
mediate period in abstinence, and permitting the powers -of 
nature to readjust themselves and recover their tone before 



lect. IV.] PRESERVING HEALTH, A DUTY. 47 

they committed a new debauch ; while others may have 
led an. extremely active life, passing much of their time in 
the open air : a mode of being which enables the constitu- 
tion to withstand a greater extent of intemperance than it 
can resist with sedentary employment. 

But of one and all of these men we may safely affirm 
that if they had obeyed the organic laws they would have 
lived still longer and more happily than they did by in- 
fringing them. In the course of my observations, I have 
never seen an example of an individual who perseveringly 
proceeded in a course of intemperance, either sensual or 
mental — that is, who habitually overtasked his stomach or 
his brain— who did not permanently ruin his health, useful- 
ness, and enjoyment ; I, therefore, cannot believe in the 
supposed exceptions to the organic laws. 

One source of error on this subject may be traced to the 
widely prevailing ignorance which exists regarding the 
structure and functions of the body ; in consequence of 
which danger is frequently present, unknown to those who 
unthinkingly expose themselves to its approach. If you 
have marked a party of young men, every one of whom is 
unacquainted with the currents, sand-banks, and rocks, 
visible and invisible, with which the Firth of Forth is 
studded, proceeding in a boat on a pleasure sail, you may 
have seen them all alert, and full of fun and frolic ; and 
if the day was calm and the sea smooth, you may have 
observed them return in the evening well and happy, and 
altogether unconscious of the dangers to which their 
ignorance had exposed them. 

They may repeat the experiment, and succeed, by a 
fortunate combination of circumstances, again and again ; 
but how different would be the feelings of a prudent and 
experienced pilot, who knew every part of the channel, and 
who saw that on one day they had passed within three 
inches of a sunken rock, on which, if they had struck, their 
boat would have been smashed to pieces ; on another, had 
escaped by a few yards a ^ dangerous sand-bank ; and on 
a third, had with great difficulty been able to extricate 
themselves from a current which was rapidly carrying them 
on a precipitous and rocky shore. The pilot's anxiety would 
probably be fully justified at length by the occurrence of 
one or other of those mischances, or by the upsetting of the 
boat in a squall, its destruction in a mist, or its driving out 
to sea when the wind aided an ebbing tide. 



48 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IV 



Tims it is with rash, reckless, ignorant youth in regard to 
health. Each folly or indiscretion that, through some com- 
bination of fortunate circumstances, has been committed 
without immediate punishment, emboldens them to venture 
on greater irregularities, until, in an evil hour, they are 
caught in a violation of the organic laws that consigns them 
to the grave. Those who have become acquainted with the 
structure, functions, and laws of the vital organs see the 
conduct of these blind adventurers on the ocean of life in 
the same light. There is an unspeakable difference between 
a belief in safety founded only on utter ignorance of the 
existence of danger, and that which arises from a knowledge 
of all the sunken rocks and eddies in the stream, and from 
a practical pilot's skill in steering clear of them all. 

The last observation which I make on this head is that, 
in regard to health, Nature may be said to allow us to run 
with her an account-current, in which many small trans- 
gressions seem at the time to be followed by no penalty, 
when, in fact, they are all charged to the debit side of the 
account, and, after the lapse of years, are summed up and 
closed by a fearful balance against the transgressor. 

Do any of you know individuals, who for twenty years 
have persevered in frequent feastings, who all that time 
have been constant diners out or diners at home, or the soul 
of convivial meetings, prolonged into far advanced hours of 
the morning, and who have resisted every warning and 
admonition from friends, and have proceeded in the con- 
stant belief that neither health nor strength was impaired 
by such a course '? 

Nature kept an account-current _ with such men. She 
had at first placed a strong constitution and vigorous health 
to their credit, and they had drawn on it day by day; 
believing that, because she did not instantly strike the 
balance against them and withdraw her blessing, she was 
keeping no note of their follies. But mark the close. At 
the end of twenty years, or less, you will find them dying 
of palsy, apoplexy, water in the chest, or some other disease 
clearly referable to their protracted intemperance ; or if 
they escape death, you will see them become walking 
shadows, the ghosts of their former selves — the beacons, 
in short, set up by Nature to warn others that she does not, 
in any instance, permit her laws to be transgressed with 
impunity. 

It must be allowed, however, that the dangers arising to 



Iect. iv.] PRESERVING HEALTH, A DUTY. d9 

health from improper social habits and arrangements 
cannot be altogether avoided by the exertions of indi- 
viduals acting singly in their separate spheres. I shall 
have occasion hereafter, in explaining the social law, to 
point out that the great precept of Christianity (that we 
must love our neighbours as ourselves) is inscribed in every 
line of our constitution ; and that, in consequence, Ave must 
render our neighbours as moral, intelligent, and virtuous as 
ourselves, and induce them to form a public opinion in 
favour of wisdom and virtue, before we can reap the full 
reward even of our own knowledge and attainments. 

As an example in point, I observe that if there be among 
us any one merchant, manufacturer, or lawyer who feels, 
in all its magnitude and intensity, the evil of an overstrained 

Eursuit of wealth, he cannot, with impunity, abridge his 
ours of toil unless he can induce his rivals to do so also. 
If they persevere, they will outstrip him in the race of com- 
petition and impair his fortune. We must, therefore, pro- 
duce a general conviction among the constituent members 
of society that Providence forbids that course of incessant 
action which obstructs the path of moral and intellectual 
improvement, and leads to mental anxiety and corporeal 
suffering ; and induce them, by a simultaneous movement, 
to apply an effectual remedy in a wiser and better distribu- 
tion of the hours of labour, relaxation, and enjoyment. 

Every one of us can testify that this impossible, so far as 
the real, necessary, and advantageous business of the world 
is concerned ; for we perceive that, by a judicious arrange- 
ment of our time and our affairs, all necessary business may 
be compressed within many fewer hours than those we now 
dedicate to that object. I should consider eight hours a 
day amply sufficient for business and labour ; there would 
remain eight hours more for enjoyment, and eight for 
repose : a distribution that would cause the current of life to 
flow more cheerfully, agreeably, and successfully than it can 
do under our present system of ceaseless competition and toil. 

It appears, then, from the foregoing considerations, that 
the study and observance of the laws of health is a moral 
duty, revealed by our constitution as the will of God, and, 
moreover, necessary to the due discharge of all our other 
duties. We rarely hear from divines an exposition of the 
duty of preserving health founded on and enforced by an 
exposition of our natural constitution : because divines 
confine themselves to what they find in the Scriptures. 

E 



50 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect . IV. 



But the Scriptures, in prescribing sobriety and temper- 
ance, moderation and activity, clearly coincide with the 
natural laws on this subject : and we ought not to study 
the former to the exclusion of the latter : for, by learning 
the structure, functions, and relations of the human body, 
we are rendered more fully aware of the excellence of the 
Scriptural precepts, and we obtain new motives to observe 
them in our perception of the punishments by which, even 
in this world, the breach of them is visited. 

Why the exposition of the will of God, when strikingly 
written in the Book of Nature, should be neglected by 
divines, is explicable only by the fact that when the present 
standards of theology were framed, that book was sealed, 
and its contents were unknown. We cannot, therefore, 
justly blame our ancestors for the omission ; but it is not too 
much to hope that modern divines may take courage and 
supply the deficiency. By teaching the people to regard all 
natural institutions as Divine, they may remove this obstacle 
to improvement, and thus religion may be brought to lend 
her powerful aid in enforcing obedience to the natural law r s. 

In my Introductory Lecture I explained that Veneration, 
as well as the other moral sentiments, is merely a blind 
feeling, and needs to be directed by knowledge. I humbly 
propose, that in a sound education, the sentiment of A 7 enera- 
tion should be directed to all that God has really instituted. 
If the structure and functions of the body were taught to 
youth as God's workmanship, and if the duties deducible 
from them w T ere clearly enforced as His commands, the 
mind w 7 ould feel it to be sinful to neglect or to violate 
them ; and a great additional efficacy w r ould thereby be 
given to all precepts recommending exercise, cleanliness, 
and temperance. 

As closely connected with health, I proceed to consider 
the subject of amusements, regarding which much difference 
of opinion prevails. When we have no true philosophy of 
mind, this question becomes altogether inextricable, because 
every individual disputant ascribes to human nature those 
tendencies, either to vice or to virtue, which suit his 
favourite theory, and then he has no difficulty in proving 
that amusements either are, or are not, necessary and ad- 
vantageous to a being so constituted. Philosophy gives us 
a firmer basis. Man cannot make and unmake mental and 
bodily faculties, nor vary their functions and law 7 s of action 
to suit his different theories and views. 



LECT. IV.] PRESERVING HEALTH, A DUTY. 



51 



From the law of our constitution, therefore, it is plain 
that variety of employment is necessary to our welfare, and 
was so intended by the Creator. Hence He has given us a 
plurality of faculties, so that some may rest while others 
are actively employed. 

Among these various faculties, there are several which 
appear obviously destined to contribute to our amusement : 
a circumstance which (as Addison has remarked) "suf- 
ficiently shows us that Providence did not design this world 
should be filled with murmurs and repinings, or that the 
heart of man should be involved in gloom and melancholy." 
We have received a faculty of the ludicrous, which, when 
active, prompts us to laugh and to excite laughter in others ; 
we have received faculties of Tune and Time, which inspire 
us with the desire, and give us the talent, to produce music. 
Our organs of voluntary motion are so connected with 
these faculties, that when we hear gay and vivacious music 
played in well marked time, we instinctively desire to 
dance ; and when we survey the effect of dancing on our 
corporeal frame, we discover that it is admirably calculated 
to promote the circulation of the blood and nervous 
influence all over the body, and by this means to strengthen 
the limbs, the heart, the lungs, and the brain : in short, to 
invigorate the health, and to render the mind cheerful and 
alert. 

The faculty of Intellect, combined with Secretiveness, 
Imitation, and Ideality, confers a talent for acting, or for 
representing by words, looks, gestures, and attitudes the 
various emotions, passions, and ideas of the soul ; and these 
representations excite the faculties of the spectators into 
activity in a powerful and pleasing manner. Further, the 
Creator has bestowed on us faculties of Constructiveness, 
Form, Size, Locality, and Colouring, which, combined with 
Imitation and Ideality, prompt us to represent objects in 
statuary or painting : and these representations also speak 
directly to the mind of the beholder, and fill it with delight- 
ful emotions. Here, then, we trace directly to Nature the 
origin of the stage and of the fine arts. 

Again, I am forced to remark that to those individuals 
who have not seen evidence of the existence and functions 
of the faculties here enumerated, this reference of the fine 
arts, and of the drama in particular, to Nature, or, in other 
words, to the intention of the Creator, will appear unwar- 
ranted, perhaps irreverent or impious. To such persons I 
E 2 



52 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IV. 



reply that, having satisfied myself by observation that the 
faculties do exist, and that they produce the effects here 
described, I cannot avoid the conclusion in question : and 
in support of it I may refer also to the existence of the 
stage, and to the delight of mankind, in all ages and all 
civilised countries, in scenic representations. 

If, therefore, the faculties which produce the love of the 
stage and the fine arts have been instituted by Nature, we 
may justly infer that they have legitimate, improving, and 
exalting objects ; although, like our other talents, they may 
be abused. The line of demarcation between their use and 
their abuse may be distinguished by a moderate exercise of 
judgment. They are in themselves mere arts of expression 
and representation, a species of natural language, which 
may be made subservient to the gratification of all the 
faculties, whether propensities, moral sentiments, or intellect. 

The applications made of these powers, by particular 
nations or individuals, bear reference to their general 
mental condition. The ancient Greeks and Eomans enjoyed 
very immoral plays, and also combats of gladiators and of 
wild beasts, in which men and animals tore each other to 
pieces, and put each other to death. Such scenes were the 
direct stimulants of Amativeness, Combativeness, and De- 
structiveness, and proclaim to us, more forcibly than the 
pages of the most eloquent, veracious, and authentic 
historians, that these nations, with all their boasted refine- 
ment, were essentially barbarians, and that, in the mass of 
the people, the moral sentiments had not attained any 
important ascendency. 

In the days of Queen Elizabeth and Charles the Second, 
plays of a very indelicate character were listened to by the 
nobles and common people of Britain without the least ex- 
pression of disapprobation : and this indicated a general gross- 
ness of feeling and of manners to be prevalent among them. 
Even in our own day we become spectators of plays of very 
imperfect morality and questionable delicacy ; and the 
same conclusion follows, that there still lurks among us no 
small portion of unrefined animal propensity and semi- 
barbarism : in other words, that the moral and intellectual 
faculties have not yet achieved the full conquest over our 
inferior nature. 

But even in these instances there is an evident advance 
from the Greek and Boman standard towards a more legiti- 
mate use of the faculties of representation ; and I conclude 



lect. IV.] PRESERVING HEALTH, A DUTY. 53 

from this fact that future generations will apply them to 
still higher and more useful objects. Nor is it too enthusi- 
astic to hope that some future Shakespeare, aided by the 
true philosophy of mind, and by a knowledge of the natural 
laws according to which good and evil are dispensed in the 
world, may teach and illustrate the philosophy of human 
life with all the splendour of eloquence and soul-stirring 
energy of conception which lofty genius can impart ; and 
that a future Kemble or Siddons may proclaim such lessons 
in living speech and gestures to mankind. 

If there be any truth in the principles on which these 
remarks are founded, we cannot avoid lamenting that 
helpless (although well-meaning and amiable) imbecility 
which, alarmed at the abuses of amusements, decries them 
altogether. 

In urging you to "try all things," and to distinguish 
between the uses and the abuses of every gift, my aim is to 
impart to you knowledge to distinguish virtue and courage 
to maintain it ; to render you bold in advocating what is 
right, and to induce you, while there is a principle of reason 
and morality left to rest upon, never to abandon the field, 
whether of duty, instruction, or amusement, to those whom 
you consider the enemies of human happiness and virtue. 



54 



LECTURE V. 

Man as a Domestic Being. 

The previous Lectures have been devoted to consideration 
of the duties incumbent on man as an individual — those of 
acquiring knowledge and of preserving health. My reason 
for thus limiting his individual duties is, that I consider 
man essentially as a social being ; and that, with the excep- 
tion of his duties to God, which we shall subsequently 
consider, he has no duties as an individual beyond those I 
have mentioned, any more than a particular wheel of a 
watch has functions independently of performing its part 
in the general movements of the machine. I mean by this, 
that although man subsists and acts as an individual, yet 
that the great majority of his faculties bear reference to 
other beings as their objects, and show that his leading 
sphere of life and action is in society. 

The domestic character of man is founded in, or arises 
from, the innate faculties of Amativeness, Philoprogenitive- 
ness, and Adhesiveness. These give him desires for a 
companion of a different sex, for children, and for the 
society of human beings in general. Marriage results from 
the combination of these three faculties with the moral 
sentiments and the intellect, and is thus a natural insti- 
tution. 

Some persons conceive that marriage, or the union for 
life, is an institution only of ecclesiastical or of civil law ; 
but this idea is erroneous. Where the faculties above enu- 
merated are adequately and equally possessed, and the moral 
and intellectual faculties predominate, union for life, or 
marriage, ' is a natural result. It prevailed among the 
ancient Greeks and Romans, and it exists among the 
Chinese and many other nations who have not embraced 
either Judaism or Christianity. 

It is true that certain individuals find the marriage tie a 
restraint, and would prefer that it should be abolished. It 
is also true that some tribes of savages may be found 
among whom it can scarcely be said to exist. But men so 
constituted do not form the standard by which human 
nature should be estimated. Viewing marriage as the 



lect. v.] MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 



55 



result of man's constitution, we ascribe to it a Divine origin. 
It is written in our minds ; and, like other Divine institu- 
tions, it is supported by reward and punishment peculiar to 
itself. The reward attached to it is enjoyment of some of 
the purest and sweetest pleasures of which our nature is 
susceptible ; and the punishment inflicted for inconstancy 
in it is moral and physical degradation. 

Among the duties incumbent on the human being in 
relation to marriage, one is that the parties to it should not 
unite before a proper age. The civil law of Scotland allows 
females to marry at twelve, and males at fourteen ; but the 
law of Nature is widely different. ^ The female frame does 
not, in general, arrive at its full vigour and perfection in 
this climate earlier than twenty-two, nor the male earlier 
than from twenty-four to twenty-six. Before these ages, 
maturity of physical strength and of mental vigour is not, 
in general, attained ; and the individuals, with particular 
exceptions, are neither corporeally nor mentally prepared 
to become parents, or to discharge, with advantage, the 
duties of heads of a domestic establishment. Their cor- 
poreal frames are not yet sufficiently matured and consoli- 
dated ; their animal propensities are strong ; and their moral 
and intellectual organs have not yet reached their full 
development. 

The statement of the evidence and the consequences of 
this law belongs to physiology. Here I can only remark that 
if Nature has prescribed ages previous to which marriage 
cannot be undertaken with advantage, we are bound to pay 
deference to its enactments ; and that civil and ecclesiastical 
laws, when standing in opposition to them, are not only 
absurd, but are also mischievous. Conscience is misled by 
these erroneous human statutes ; for a girl of fifteen has no 
idea that she sins if her marriage be authorised by the law 
and the Church. In spite, however, of the sanction of acts 
of Parliament and of clerical benedictions, the Creator 
punishes severe] y if His laws be infringed. His punishments 
assume the following, among other forms : 

The parties, being young, ignorant, inexperienced, and 
actuated chiefly by passion, often make unfortunate selec- 
tions of partners, and entail lasting unhappiness on each 
other ; 

They transmit imperfect constitutions and inferior dis- 
positions to their earliest born children ; And 
They often involve themselves in pecuniary d ifriculties, in 



m MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. v. 

consequence of a sufficient provision not having been made 
before marriage to meet the expenses of a family. 

These punishments indicate that a law of Nature has been 
violated : in other words, that marriage at too early an age 
is forbidden by the Author of our being. 

There should not be a great disparity between the ages 
of the husband and the wife. A physical and mental mode 
of being is natural to each age ; whence persons whose 
faculties correspond in their condition sympathise in their 
feelings, judgments, and pursuits, and form suitable com- 
panions for each other. When the ages are widely different, 
not only is this sympathy wanting, but the offspring also is 
injured. In such instances it is generally the husband who 
transgresses ; old men are fond of marrying young women. 
The children of such unions often suffer grievously from 
the disparity. 

Another natural law in regard to marriage is that the 
parties should not be related to each other by blood. This 
law holds good in the transmission of all organised beings. 
Even vegetables are deteriorated if the same stock be re- 
peatedly planted in the same ground. In the case of the 
lower animals, a continued disregard of this law is almost 
universally admitted to be detrimental, and human nature 
affords no exception to the rule. It is written in our 
organisation ; and the consequences of its infringement may 
be discovered in the degeneracy, physical and mental, of 
many noble and royal families, who have long and system- 
atically set it at defiance. 

It is curious to observe the inconsistency of the enact- 
ments of legislators on the subject. According to the 
Levitical law, which we in this country have adopted, 
"marriage is prohibited between relations within three 
degrees of kindred, computing the generations through the 
common ancestor, and accounting affinity the same as con- 
sanguinity. Among the A thenians, brothers and sisters of the 
half-blood, if related by the father's side, might marry ; if 
by the mother's side, they were prohibited from marrying. 

" The same custom," says Paley, " probably prevailed in 
Chaldea, for Sarah was Abraham's half-sister. ' She is the 
daughter of my father/ says Abraham, 1 but not of rny 
mother; and she became my wife' (Gen. xx. 12). The 
Roman law continued the prohibition without limits to the 
descendants of brothers or sisters." * 

* Paley 's " Moral Philosophy," p. 228. 



LECT. v.] MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 



57 



Here we observe Athenian, Chaldean, and Boman legis- 
lators .prohibiting or permitting certain acts, apparently 
according to the degree of light which had penetrated into 
their own understandings concerning their natural con- 
sequences. The real Divine law is written in the structure 
and modes of action of our bodily and mental constitutions, 
and it prohibits the marriage of all blood relations, diminish- 
ing the punishment, however, according as the remote- 
ness from the common ancestor increases, but allowing 
marriages among relations by affinity, without any pro- 
hibition whatever. 

According to the law of Scotland, a man may marry his 
cousin-german, or his great niece, both of which connections 
the law of Nature declares to be inexpedient ; but he may 
not marry his deceased wife's sister, against which con- 
nection Nature declares no penalty whatever. He might 
have married either sister at first without impropriety, and 
there is no reason in nature why he may not marry them in 
succession— the one after the other has died. There may be 
other reasons of expediency for prohibiting this connection, 
but the organic laws do not condemn it. 

In Scotland, the practice of full cousins marrying is not 
uncommon, and you will meet with examples of healthy 
families born of such unions ; and from these an argument 
is maintained against the existence of the natural law which 
we are now considering. But it is only when the parents 
have both had excellent constitutions that the children do 
not attract attention by their imperfections. The first 
alliance against the natural laws brings down the tone of 
the organs and functions, say, one degree ; the second two 
degrees, and the third _ three ; and perseverance in trans- 
gression ends in glaring imperfections or in extinction 
of the race. This is undeniable ; and it proves the reality 
of the law. 

The children of healthy cousins are not so favourably 
organised as the children of the same parents, if married to 
equally healthy partners, not all related in blood, would 
have been. If the cousins have themselves inherited in- 
different constitutions, the degeneracy is striking even in 
their children. Besides, I have seen the children of cousins 
continue healthy till the age of puberty, and then suffer 
from marked imperfections of constitution. Their good 
health in childhood was looked on by the parents as a proof 
that they had not in their union infringed any natural 



53 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. v. 



law, but the subsequent events proved a painful retribution 
for their conduct. We may err in interpreting Nature's laws ; 
but when we do discover them in their full import and con- 
sequences, we never find exceptions to them. 

Another natural law relative to marriage is that the 
parties should possess sound constitutions. The punishment 
for neglecting this law is, that the transgressors suffer pain 
and misery in their own persons from bad health, perhaps 
become disagreeable companions to each other, feel them- 
selves unfit to discharge the duties of their condition, and 
transmit feeble constitutions to their children. They are 
also exposed to premature death ; and hence their children 
are liable to all the melancholy consequences of being left 
unprotected and unguided by parental experience and 
affection at a time when these are most needed. The 
natural law is that a weak and imperfectly organised frame 
transmits one of a similar description to offspring ; and the 
children, inheriting weakness, are prone to fall into disease 
and to die. Indeed, the transmission of various diseases, 
founded in physical imperfections, from parents to children 
is a matter of universal notoriety ; thus, consumption, rheu- 
matism, gout, scrofula, hydrocephalus, and insanity are well 
known to descend from generation to generation. Strictly 
speaking, it is not disease which is transmitted, but organs 
of such imperfect structure that they are incapable of 
adequately performing their functions, and so weak that 
they are drawn into a morbid condition by causes which 
sound organs could easily resist. 

As to the transmission of mental qualities, I observe that 
form and quality of brain descend, like those of other parts 
of the body, from parents to children ; and that hence dis- 
positions and talents, which depend upon the condition of 
the brain, are transmitted also — a fact which has long been 
remarked both by medical authors and by observant men 
in general. 

The qualities of the stock of each parent are apt to re- 
appear in their children. If there be insanity in the 
family of the father or the mother, although both of these 
may have escaped it, the disease, or some imperfection of 
brain allied to it, frequently reappears in one or more 
of their children. The great characteristic qualities of the 
stock, in like manner, are often reproduced in distant 
descendants. 

While the father's constitution undoubtedly exerts an 



lect. v.] MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 59 



influence, the constitution of the mother seems to have 
more effect in determining the qualities of the children, 
particularly when she is a woman possessing a fine tempera- 
ment and an energetic mind. There are few instances of 
men of distinguished vigour and activity of mind whose 
mothers did not possess a considerable amount of the same 
endowments ; and the fact of eminent men having so 
frequently children far inferior to themselves is explicable 
by the circumstance that men of talent often marry women 
whose minds are comparatively weak. When the mother's 
brain is very defective, the minds of the children are 
feeble. 

" We know," says the great German physiologist Haller, 
"a very remarkable instance of two noble females who got 
husbands on account of their wealth, although they were 
nearly idiots, and from which this mental defect has ex- 
tended for a century into several families, so that some of 
all their descendants still continue idiots in the fourth and 
even the fifth generation." * In many families the qualities 
of both father and mother are seen blended in the children. 
Finally, it often happens that the mental qualities of the 
father are transmitted to some of the children, and those of 
the mother to others. 

It is pleasing to observe that in Wiirtemburg, Baden, 
and some other German States, there are two excellent} 
laws calculated to improve the moral and physical condition 
of the people. First, "It is illegal for any young man to 
marry before he is twenty-five, or any young woman before 
she is eighteen." Here the human legislator pays much 
more deference to the Divine Lawgiver than he does in our 
country. Secondly, " A man, at whatever age he wishes to 
marry, must show to the police and the priest of ' the 
commune where he resides that he is able, and has the 
prospect, to provide for a wife and family." This also is 
extremely judicious. 

Another natural law in regard to marriage is that the 
mental qualities and the physical constitutions of the 
parties should be adapted to each other. If their disposi- 
tions, tastes, talents, and general habits harmonise, the 
reward is domestic felicity — the greatest enjoyment of life. 
If these differ so widely as to cause jarring and collision, 
the home, which should be the palace of peace and the 
mansion of the softest affections of our nature, becomes a 
* "Elem. Physiol.," Lib. xxix., Sec. 2, § 8. 



GO 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. v. 



theatre of war ; and of all states of hostility, that between 
husband and wife is the most interminable and incurable, 
because the combatants live constantly together, have all 
things in common, and are continually exposed to the in- 
fluence of each other's dispositions. 

The importance of this law becomes more striking when 
we attend to the fact that, by ill assortment, not only are 
the parties themselves rendered unhappy, but their immoral 
condition directly affects the dispositions of their children. 
It is a rule in Nature that the effects even of temporary 
departures from the organic laws descend to offspring pro- 
duced during that state, and injure their constitutions. 

Thus — children produced under the influence of inebriety 
appear to receive an organisation which renders them liable 
to a craving appetite for stimulating fluids. Children 
produced w T hen the parents are depressed with misfortune, 
and suffering under severe nervous debility, are liable to be 
easily affected by events calculated to induce a similar 
condition ; children produced when the parents are under 
the influence of violent passion inherit a constitution that 
renders them liable to the same excitement. Hence, on 
the other hand, children produced w 7 hen the parents are 
happy, and under the dominion of the higher sentiments 
and the intellect, inherit qualities that render them 
naturally disposed to corresponding states of mind. 

In my second Lecture I laid down the principle that 
man's first duty, as an individual, is to acquire knowledge 
of himself, of external nature, and of the will of God ; and 
I beg your attention to the application of this knowledge 
when acquired. If organic laws relative to marriage be 
really instituted by the Creator, and if reward and punish- 
ment be annexed to each of them, of what avail is it to 
know these facts abstractly, unless we know also the cor- 
responding duties, and are disposed to perform them? 
We want such a knowledge of the human constitution as 
will carry home to the understanding and the conscience the 
law of God written in our frames, and will induce us to 
obey it. The sanction of public sentiment, religion, and civil 
enactments are all necessary to enforce the observance of 
that law r ; and we need training also to render obedience 
habitual. 

Knowledge of the constitutions of individuals about to 
marry can be attained only by the study of the structure, 
functions, and laws of the body. If anatomy and physiology, 



LECT. v.] MAN AS A DOMESTIC BEING. 



61 



and their practical applications, formed branches of general 
education, we should be led to view this subject in all its 
importance, and, where our own skill was insufficient to 
direct us, we should call in higher experience. 

Believing, as I do, that the Creator has constituted Man 
a rational being, I am prepared to maintain that average 
men, if adequately instructed and trained, could not avoid 
giving effect to the natural laws in forming marriages. 
If, before the domestic affections come into full activity, 
the youth of both sexes were instructed in the laws of the 
Creator relative to marriage, and if the sanctions of religion 
and the opinion of society were added to enforce the fulfil- 
ment of them, it is not to be presumed that the propensi- 
ties would still hurry average men to act in disregard 
of all these guides. This assumption would imply that 
man is not rational, and that the Creator has laid down 
laws for him which he is incapable, under any natural 
guidance, of obeying — a proposition which to me is 
incredible. 



62 



LECTURE VI 

Polygamy and Divoece. 

My last Lecture related to the constitution of marriage. 
Moralists generally discuss also the questions of polygamy, 
fidelity to the marriage vow, and divorce. 

On the subject of polygamy, I may remark that it is 
pretty well ascertained by statistical researches that the 
proportions of the sexes born are thirteen males to twelve 
females. From the greater hazards to which the male sex 
is exposed, this disparity is reduced, in adult life, to 
equality ; indeed, in almost all Europe, owing to the in- 
jurious habits and pursuits of the men, the balance among 
adults is turned the other way, the females of any given 
age above puberty preponderating over the males. 

In some Eastern countries more females are born than 
males ; and it is said that this indicates a design in nature 
that there each male should have several wives. But there 
is reason to believe that the variation from the proportion 
of thirteen to twelve is the consequence of vicious habits in 
the males. In our own country and race it is observed that 
when old men marry young females the progeny are 
generally daughters ; and I infer that, in the Eastern 
countries alluded to, in which an excess of females exists, 
the cause may be found in the superior vigour and youth 
of the females. 

The equality of the sexes, therefore, when the organic 
laws are duly observed, affords one strong indication that 
polygamy is not a natural institution. This conclusion is 
strengthened by considering the objects of the domestic 
affections. Harmonious gratification of the faculties con- 
stituting the domestic group, in accordance with the moral 
sentiments and the intellect, is attended with the greatest 
amount of pure enjoyment and the most advantageous re- 
sults ; but this can be attained only by the union of one male 
with one female. 

If the male have several wives, there is a diminution of 
gratification to Adhesiveness and Philoprogenitiveness ; for 
his attachment, diffused among a multitude of objects, can 
never glow with the intensity, nor act with the softness and. 



lect. VI.] POLYGAMY AND DIVORCE. G3 



purity, which inspire it when directed to one wife and her 
offspring. The females also, in a state of polygamy, must 
be deprived of gratification to their Self-Esteem and 
Adhesiveness, for none of them can claim an undivided 
love. 

There is injustice to the females, therefore, in the prac- 
tice ; and no institution that is unjust can proceed from 
nature. Further, when we consider that in married life the 
pleasures derived from the domestic affections are unspeak- 
ably enhanced by the habitual play of the moral feelings, 
and that polygamy is fatal to the close sympathy, confidence, 
respect, and reciprocal devotion which are the attendants 
of active moral sentiments, we shall be fully convinced that 
the Creator has not intended that men should unite them- 
selves to a plurality of wives. 

Regarding fidelity : Every argument tending to show 
that polygamy is forbidden by the natural law goes to 
support the obligation of fidelity to the marriage vow. As 
this point is one on which, fortunately, no difficulty or 
difference of opinion among rational persons exists, I 
shall not dwell on it, but shall proceed to the subject of 
divorce. 

The law of Scotland permits divorce on account of in- 
fidelity to the marriage vow ; of non-adherence, or wilful 
desertion, as it is called, by the husband, of his wife's 
society ; and of personal imbecility. The law of Moses 
permitted the Jewish husband to put away his wife ; and 
under Napoleon the French law permitted married persons 
to dissolve their marriage by consent, after giving one year's 
judicial notice of their intention, and making suitable pro- 
visions for their children. The New Testament confines 
divorce to the single case of infidelity in the wife. 

The question now occurs — What does the law of Nature, 
written in our constitutions, enact ? 

The first fact that presents itself to our consideration is 
that in persons oi well-constituted minds, Nature not only 
institutes marriage, but makes it indissoluble, except by 
death : even those lower animals which live in pairs exem- 
plify permanent connection. In regard to man, I remark 
that where the domestic affections bear a just proportion 
to each other, and where the moral and intellectual are 
favourably developed and cultivated, there is not only no 
desire on either side to bring the marriage tie to an end, 
but there is the utmost repugnance to do so. 



64 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. vt> 



Where the marriage union is formed according to Nature's 
laws, no civil enactments are needed to render it indis- 
soluble during life. It is clear that life-endurance is 
stamped upon it by the Creator when He renders its con- 
tinuance so sweet, and its bursting asunder so indescribably 
painful. It is only where the minds of the parties are ill- 
constituted, or the union is otherwise unfortunate, that the 
desire for separation exists. 

The causes which may lead married individuals to wish 
to terminate their union may be briefly considered. 

If, in either of them, the inferior faculties predominate 
greatly over Adhesiveness, Philoprogenitiveness, and the 
moral sentiments, there is a feeling of restraint in the 
married state which is painful. 

To compel a virtuous and amiable partner to live in in- 
separable society with a person thus constituted, and to be 
the unwilling medium of transmitting immoral dispositions 
to children, appears directly contrary to the dictates both 
of benevolence and of justice. Paley's argument against 
permitting dissolution of the marriage tie at the will of the 
husband is, "that new objects of desire would be con- 
tinually sought after, if men could at will be released from 
their subsisting engagements. Supposing the husband to 
have once preferred his wife to all other women, the dura- 
tion of this preference cannot be trusted to. Possession 
makes a great difference, and there is no other security 
against the invitations of novelty than the known impos- 
sibility of obtaining the object." 

This argument is good when applied to men with un- 
favourably balanced brains : viz., to those in whom the 
inferior faculties predominate over Adhesiveness and the 
moral sentiments ; but it is unfounded as a general rule, 
and the question is, whether it be desirable to deny abso- 
lutely to the great body of the people all available means 
of dissolving the connection with such beings. It appears 
not to be so. The husband, certainly, should not have the 
power to dissolve the marriage tie at his pleasure ; but the 
French law seems more reasonable, which permitted the 
parties to dissolve the marriage when both of them, after 
twelve months' deliberation, and after suitably providing 
for their children, desired to bring it to a close. 

The same argument applies to the voluntary dissolution 
of marriage in cases of irreconcilable differences in temper 
and dispositions. "The law of Nature," says Paley, 



lect. VI.] POLYGAMY AND DIVORCE. 65 

" admits of divorce in favour of the injured party in cases 
of adultery, of obstinate desertion, of attempts upon life, of 
outrageous cruelty, of incurable madness, and peraaps of 
personal imbecility ; but by no means indulges the same 
privileges to mere dislike, to opposition of humours and 
inclination, to contrariety of taste and temper, to complaints 
of coldness, neglect, severity, peevishness, jealousy : not 
that these reasons are trivial, but because such objections 
may always be alleged, and are impossible by testimony to 
be ascertained ; so that to allow implicit credit to them, and 
to dissolve marriages whenever either party thought fit to 
pretend them, would lead in its effects to all the licentious- 
ness of arbitrary divorces. 

" If a married pair, in actual and irreconcilable discord, 
complain that their happiness would be better consulted by 
permitting them to determine a connection which is become 
odious to both, it may be told them that the same permis- 
sion, as a general rule, would produce libertinism, dissension, 
and misery among thousands who are now virtuous, and 
quiet, and happy in their condition ; and it ought to satisfy 
them to reflect that, when their happiness is sacrificed to 
the operation of an unrelenting rule, it is sacrificed to the 
happiness of the community." 

In my view, this argument is a grand fallacy. Actual 
and irreconcilable discord arises from want of harmony in 
the natural dispositions of the parties, and agreement arises 
from the existence of such harmony. The natures of the 
parties in the one case differ irreconcilably ; but to maintain 
that if two persons of such discordant minds were permitted 
to separate, thousands of accordant minds would instantly 
fly asunder, is as illogical as it would be to assert that if 
the humane spectators of a street fight were to separate the 
combatants, they would forthwith be seized with the mania 
of fighting among themselves. 

In point of fact, the common arguments on this subject 
have been written in ignorance of the real elements of 
human nature, and are applicable only to particularly con- 
stituted individuals. Married persons may be divided into 
three classes : First, those whose dispositions naturally 
accord, and who, consequently, are happy ; secondly, those 
in whom there are some feelings in harmony, but many in 
discord, and who are in the medium state between happi- 
ness and misery ; and thirdly, those between whose dis- 
positions there are irreconcilable differences, and who 



56 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. vi. 



are, in consequence, altogether unhappy in each other's 
society. 

Paley's views, if applied to persons who are bordering on 
the middle line of like and dislike towards each other, would 
be sound. To hold up to such persons extreme difficulty or 
impossibility in obtaining a dissolution of the marriage tie 
will present them with motives to cultivate those feelings 
in which they agree ; while to offer them easy means of 
terminating it might lead to a reckless aggravation of their 
quarrels. 

But this is only one c,lass, and their case does not exhaust 
the question. Where the union is really accordant in 
nature, the facility of undoing it will not alter its character, 
nor produce the desire to destroy the happiness which it en- 
genders. Where it is irremediably unsuitable and unhappy, 
the sacrifice of the parties will not mend their own con^ 
dition ; and as the happy are safe in the attractions of a 
reciprocal affection, the only persons who can be said to be 
benefited by the example of the inseparability of the 
wretched are the class of waverers to whom I have alluded. 

I humbly think that Nature has attached not a few 
penalties to the dissolution of the marriage tie, which may 
have some effect on this class ; and that these, aided by 
proper legal impediments to the fulfilment of their caprices, 
might render the restraints on them sufficient, without 
calling for the absolute sacrifice of their completely unhappy 
brethren for the supposed public good. 

Such a conclusion ^ is greatly strengthened by the con- 
sideration that the dispositions of children are determined, 
in an important degree, by the predominant dispositions of 
the parents ; and that to prevent the separation of wretched 
couples is to entail misery on the offspring, not only by the 
influence of example, but by the transmission of ill-consti- 
tuted brains. 

The argument that an indissoluble tie presents motives 
to the exercise of grave reflection before marriage might be 
worthy of some consideration if persons contemplating that 
state possessed adequate means of rendering reflection suc- 
cessful ; but while the law permits matrimonial unions at 
ages when the parties are destitute of foresight, and while 
the system of moral and intellectual education pursued in 
this country furnishes scarcely one sound element of in- 
formation to guide the judgment in its choice, the argument 
is a mockery at once of reason and of human suffering. 



LECT. VI.] 



POLYGAMY AND DIVORCE. 



67 



It appears to me that until mankind shall be instructed 
in the views which I am now advocating (in so far as ex- 
perience shall prove them to be sound), and shall be trained 
to venerate them as institutions of Nature, and to practise 
them in their conduct, they will not possess adequate means 
of acting rationally and successfully in forming marriages. 
While sources of error encompass them on every side, they 
ought not to be deprived of the possibility of escaping from 
the pit into which they may have inadvertently fallen ; and 
not only divorce for infidelity to the marriage vow, but dis- 
solution of marriage by voluntary consent under proper 
restrictions, and after due deliberation, should be per- 
mitted.* 

* The revised statutes of Massachusetts (chapter 76, sect. 5) permit 
divorce "for adultery, or defect in either party, or when either of 
them is sentenced to confinement to hard labour in the State prison, 
or in any jail or house of correction, for the term of life, or for seven 
years or more ; and no pardon granted to the party so sentenced, after 
a divorce for that cause, shall restore the party to his or her conjugal 
rights. " This last is a just and humane provision ; for it is calculated 
for the relief of the innocent partner of a confirmed criminal. 



6S 



LECTURE VII. 

The Duties of Parents. 

Having now considered the general subject of marriage, I 
proceed to make some remarks on the duties of parents to 
their children. 

Their first duty is to transmit sound constitutions, bodily 
and mental, to their offspring ; and this can be done only by 
their possessing sound constitutions themselves, and living 
in habitual observance of the natural laws. 

In the next place, parents are bound by the laws of Nature 
to support and educate their children, and to provide for 
their welfare and happiness. The foundation of this duty is 
laid in the constitution of the mind. Philoprogenitiveness, 
acting along with Benevolence, gives the impulse to its 
performance, and Veneration and Conscientiousness invest 
it with all the sanctions of moral and religious obligation. 
When these faculties are adequately possessed, there is in 
parents a strong and never slumbering desire to promote 
the real advantage of their offspring; and in such cases> 
only intellectual enlightenment and pecuniary resources are 
wanting to ensure its complete fulfilment. 

The views of Mr. Malthus on population may be adverted 
to in connection with the duty of parents to support their 
families. Stated simply, they are these : — The productive 
power of healthy, well fed, well lodged, and well clothed 
human beings is naturally so great, that fully two children 
will be born for every person who will die within a given 
time ; and as a generation lasts about thirty years, at the end 
of that period the population will, of course, be doubled. 
In point of fact, in the circumstances here enumerated, 
population is observed actually to double itself in twenty- 
five years. This rate of increase takes place in the newly 
settled and healthy states of North America, independently 
of immigration. 

To become aware of the effects which this power of 
increase would produce _ in a country of circumscribed 
territory, like Great Britain, we need resort only to a very 
simple calculation. If, for example, Great Britain in 1800 
had contained twelve millions of inhabitants, and this rate of 



lect. VII. J THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 



G9 



increase had taken place, the population in 1825 would have 
amounted to twenty-four millions ; in 1850 it would amount 
to forty-eight millions ; in 1875 to ninety-six millions; and 
so on, always doubling every twenty-five years. * 

Now, Mai thus maintained that food cannot be made to 
increase in the same proportion. We cannot extend the 
surface of Britain, for Nature has fixed its limits ; and no 
skill or labour will suffice to augment the productive powers 
of the soil in a ratio doubling every twenty-five years. As 
the same power of increase exists in other countries, similar 
observations are applicable to them. 

He, therefore, drew the conclusion that human beings (in 
the absence of adequate means of emigration, and of pro- 
curing food from foreign countries) should restrain their 
productive powers by the exercise of their moral and in- 
tellectual faculties : in other words, should not marry until 
they are in possession of sufficient means to maintain and 
educate a family. He added that if this rule were gene- 
rally infringed, and if the practice of marrying early and 
exerting the powers of reproduction to their full extent 
became common, in a densely populated country, Providence 
would check the increase by premature deaths, resulting 
from misery and starvation. 

This doctrine has been loudly declaimed against ; but its 
merits may be easily analysed. The domestic affections are 
powerful, and come early into play, apparently to afford 
a complete guarantee against extinction of the race; but 
along with them, we have received moral sentiments and 
intellect, bestowed for the evident purpose of guiding and 
restraining them, so as to lead them to their best and most 
permanent enjoyments. Now, what authority is there in 
nature for maintaining that these affections alone are en- 
titled to emancipation from moral restraint and intellectual 
guidance ; and that men have a right to pursue their own 
gratification from the first moment of their energetic 
existence to the last, if only the marriage vow shall have 
been taken and observed ? 

I see no foundation in reason for this view. From the 
imperfections of our moral education, we have been led to 

* In point of fact, the population of Great Britain in 1831 was 
16,261,000 ; in 1861 it was 23,128,000 ; in 1891 it was 33,026,000. That 
is to say, it had taken sixty years to double itself, not twenty-live. 
But, of course, emigration has greatly increased. — Ed., 1893. 



70 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [leot. vn. 

believe that if a priest solemnise a marriage, and if the vow 
of fidelity be observed, there is no sin, although there may- 
be imprudence or misfortune, in rearing a family for whom 
we are unable to provide. But if we believe in the natural 
laws as institutions of the Creator, we shall be satisfied 
that there is great sin in such conduct. 

We know that Nature has given us strong desires for 
property, and has fired us with ambition, the love of 
splendour, and other powerful longings ; yet no rational 
person argues that these desires may, with propriety, be 
gratified when we have not the means of legitimately doing 
so ; or that any ecclesiastical ceremony or dispensation can 
render such gratification allowable. Why, then, should the 
domestic affections form an exception to the universal rule 
of moral guidance and restraint ? 

Mr. Sadler, a writer on this subject, argues that marriages 
naturally become less prolific as the population becomes 
more dense, and that in this way the consequences predicted 
by Malthus are prevented. But this is trifling with the 
question ; for the very misery of which Malthus speaks is 
the cause of the diminished rate of increase. This diminution 
may be owing either to fewer children being born, or to 
more dying early in a densely than in a thinly peopled 
country or district. The causes why fewer children are born 
in densely peopled countries are easily traced. Some persons, 
finding subsistence difficult of attainment, practise moral 
restraint and marry late. Others who neglect this precaution 
are, by the competition inseparable from that condition, 
oppressed with cares and troubles, whereby the fruitfulness 
of marriage is diminished ; but these are instances of misery 
attending on a dense state of population. 

Again, it is certain that in such circumstances the 
mortality of children is greater ; but this is the result of 
confined dwellings, imperfect nutrition, depressed energies, 
and care and anxiety, which, through competition, afflict 
many parents in that social condition. 

If the opponents of Malthus could show that there is a law 
of Nature by which the productiveness of marriage is 
diminished in proportion to the density of the population, 
tvithout an increase of misery, they would completely refute 
his doctrine. This, however, they cannot do. A healthy 
couple, who marry at a proper age, and live in comfort and 
plenty, are able to rear as numerous and vigorous a family 
in the county of Edinburgh, which is densely peopled, as in 



lect. vii.] THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 71 

the thinly inhabited county of Eoss. Mr. Malthus, therefore, 
does well in bringing the domestic affections, equally with 
our other faculties, under the control of the moral and 
intellectual powers. 

The next duty of parents is to preserve the life and 
health of their children after birth, and to place them in 
circumstances calculated to develop favourably their 
physical and mental powers. It is painful to contemplate 
the extent to which human ignorance and wickedness cause 
this duty to be neglected. " A hundred years ago," says Dr. 
A. Combe, "when the pauper infants of London were re- 
ceived and brought up in the workhouses, amidst impure 
air, crowding, and want of proper food, not above one in 
twenty-four lived to be a year old ; so that out of 2,900 
annually received into them, 2,690 died. But when the con- 
ditions of health came to be a little better understood, and 
an Act of Parliament was obtained obliging the parish 
officers to send the infants to nurse in the country, this 
frightful mortality was reduced to 450 instead of 2,690 ! " 

In 1781, when the Dublin Lying-in Hospital was im- 
perfectly ventilated, "every sixth child died within nine 
days after birth of convulsive disease ; and after means of 
thorough ventilation had been adopted, the mortality of 
infants, within the same time, in five succeeding years, was 
reduced to nearly one in twenty." Even under private and 
maternal care, the mortality of infants is extraordinary. 

" It appears from the London bills of mortality, that be- 
tween a fourth and a fifth of all the infants baptised die 
within the first two years of their existence. This extra- 
ordinary result is not a part of the Creator's designs ; it does 
not occur in the case of the lower animals, and must there- 
fore have causes capable of removal."* It is the punish- 
ment of gross ignorance and neglect of the organic laws. 
Before birth, the infant lives in a temperature of 98°, being 
that of the mother ; at birth it is suddenly ushered into the 
atmosphere of a cold climate, and among the poorer classes 
through want, and among the richer through ignorance or 
inattention, it is often left very inadequately protected 
against the effects of this sudden change. In the earlier 
stages of infancy, improper food, imperfect ventilation, 
deficient cleanliness, and want of general attention, consign 
many to the grave ; while in childhood and youth great 

* " Physiology applied to Health and Education.'' 



72 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. YIL 



mischief to health and life are often occasioned by direct 
infringements of the organic laws.^ 

When you study this subject with a view to practice, you 
will find that the principles which I laid down in the fourth 
Lecture are of great importance as guides — namely, that each 
organ of the body has received a definite constitution, and 
that health is the result of the harmonious and favourable 
action of the whole. Hence, it is not sufficient to provide 
merely airy bedrooms for children if at the same time the 
means of cleanliness be neglected, or their brains be over- 
exerted in attending too many classes and learning too 
many tasks. The delicate brain of youth demands frequent 
repose. 

In short, a practical knowledge of the laws of the human 
constitution is highly conducive to the successful rearing of 
children ; and the heartrending desolation of parents, when 
they see the dearest objects of their affections successively 
torn from them by death, should be viewed as the chastise- 
ment of ignorance or negligence alone, and not as proofs of 
the world being constituted unfavourably for the production 
of human enjoyment. 

In this matter, however, parents should not look to their 
own happiness merely ; they are under solemn obligations 
to the children whom they bring into the world. Improper 
treatment in infancy and childhood, at which period the 
body grows rapidly, is productive of effects far more pre- 
judicial and permanent than at any subsequent age. # 
Assuredly those parents are not guiltless who wilfully keep 
themselves in ignorance of the organic laws, or who, know- 
ing these, refrain from acting in accordance with them in 
the rearing of their children. The latter have a positive 
claim (which no parent of right feeling will disregard or 
deny) on those who have brought them into existence that 
they shall do all in their power to render it agreeable. 

Perhaps some may think that the importance of obedi- 
ence to the organic laws has been insisted on more than the 
subject required. Such # an idea is natural enough, con- 
sidering that an exposition of these laws forms no part of 
ordinary education, and that obedience to them is enjoined 
by no human authority. There is no trace of them in the 

*The principles which should guide parents in the treatment of 
children are stated and enforced in Dr. A. Combe's work on the 
" Physiological and Moral Treatment of Infancy." 



LECT. VII.] 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 



73 



statute-book, none in the catechisms issued by authority of 
the Church ; and you rarely, if ever, hear them mentioned 
as laws of God by His servants who teach His will from the 
pulpit. Nay, even the general tongue of society, which 
allows few subjects to escape remark, is silent with regard 
to them. Hence, it is probable that the importance of 
obeying the organic laws may, to some, appear to be over- 
estimated in these Lectures. 

But the universal silence which prevails in society has 
its source in ignorance. Physiology is still unknown to 
nineteen-twentieths even of educated persons, and to the 
mass it is a complete terra incognita. Even by medical 
men it is little studied as a practical science, and the idea 
of its beneficial application as a guide to human conduct in 
general is only now beginning to engage their attention. 

On this subject I would observe that there is a vast 
difference between the uncertain and the unascertained. 
It is now universally admitted that all the movements of 
matter are regulated ; and that they are never uncertain, 
although the laws which they observe may, in some in- 
stances, be unascertained. The revolutions of the planets 
can be predicted, while those of some of the comets are still 
unknown ; but no philosopher imagines that the latter are 
uncertain. 

The minutest drop of water that descends the mighty 
Fall of Niagara is regulated in all its movements by definite 
laws, whether it rise in mist and float in the atmosphere 
to distant regions, there to descend as rain ; or be absorbed 
by a neighbouring shrub and reappear as an atom in a 
blossom adorning the Canadian shore ; or be drunk up by 
a living creature, and mingle with its blood ; or become 
a portion of an oak, which at a future time shall career on 
the ocean. Nothing can be less ascertained, or probably 
less ascertainable by mortal study, than the revolutions of 
such an atom ; but every philosopher, without a moment's 
hesitation, will concede that not one of them is uncertain. # 

The first element of a philosophic understanding is the 
capacity of extending the same conviction to the events 
evolved in every department of nature. A man who sees 
disease occurring in youth or in middle age, and whose 
mind is not capable of perceiving that it is the result of 

* I owe this forcible illustration to Dr. Chalmers, having first heard 
it in one of his lectures. 



n 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. vrr. 



imperfect or of excessive action in some vital organ, and 
that imperfect or excessive action is just another name 
for deviation from the proper healthy state of that organ, 
is not capable of reasoning. It may be true that in many 
instances our knowledge is so imperfect that we are unable 
to discover the chain of connection between the disease and 
its organic cause ; but, nevertheless, he is no philosopher 
who doubts that such a connection exists, and that the 
discovery of it is presented as an important practical 
problem to the human understanding to solve. 

One cause of the obscurity that prevails on this subject 
in the minds of persons not medically educated is ignor- 
ance of the structure and functions of the body ; and an- 
other is, that diseases appear under two very distinct forms 
— structural and functional ; only the former of which is 
considered by common observers to constitute a proper 
malady. 

If an arrow be shot into the eye, there is derangement of 
structure, and the most determined opponent of the natural 
laws will at once admit the connection between the blind- 
ness which ensues and the lesion of the organ. But if a 
watchmaker or an optical instrument-maker, by long- 
continued and excessive exertion of the eye, have become 
blind, the disease is called functional, because the function 
from being over-stimulated is impaired ; but frequently no 
alteration of structure can be perceived. 

No philosophic physiologist, however, doubts that there 
is, in the structure, a change corresponding to the functional 
derangement, although human observation cannot detect it. 
He never says that it is nonsense to assert that the patient 
has become blind in consequence of infringement of the 
organic laws. It is one of these laws that the function of 
the eye shall be exercised moderately, and it is a breach 
of that law to strain it to excess. 

The same principle applies to a great number of diseases 
occurring under the organic laws. Imperfections in the 
tone, structure, or proportions of certain organs may exist 
at birth, so hidden by their situation, or so slight, as not 
to be readily perceptible, but not on that account the less 
real and important ; or deviations may be made gradually 
and imperceptibly from the proper and healthy standards 
of exercise, and from one or other of these causes diseases 
may invade the constitution. 

Religious persons term disease occurring in this manner 



lect. VII.] THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 75 

a dispensation of God's providence ; the careless name it an 
unaccountable event • but the philosophic physician in- 
variably views it as the result of imperfect or excessive 
action of some organ or another, and he never doubts that 
it has been caused by deviations from the laws of the 
animal economy. Neither disease nor death, in early or 
middle life, can take place under the ordinary administra- 
tions of Providence, except when these laws have been 
infringed. 

My reason for insisting so strongly on this subject is a 
profound conviction of the importance of the organic laws. 
They are fundamental to happiness : that is, the conse- 
quences of errors in regard to them cannot be compensated 
for or removed by any other means than obedience. 

I daily see melancholy results of inattention to their 
dictates. When you observe the husband, in youth or in 
middle age, removed by death from the partner of his love, 
and the other dear objects of his affections ; or when you 
see the mother at a similar age torn from her infant 
children, her heart bleeding at the thought of leaving 
them in the hand of the stranger while they most need 
her maternal care : the cause of the calamity is either that 
the dying parent inherited a defective constitution in con- 
sequence of disobedience by his ancestors of the organic 
laws, or that he himself has infringed them grievously. 

Again, if we see the lovely infant snatched from the 
mother's bosom by the hand of death while it caused every 
affection of her mind to thrill with joy, and fed her hopes 
with the fondest and brightest visions of its future talent, 
virtue and happiness — let us trace the cause, and we shall 
find that the organic laws have been infringed. 

If you see an aged man walking with heavy step and 
deeply dejected mien, the nearest follower after a bier 
adorned with white — it is a father carrying to the grave 
his first-born son, the hope and stay of his life, torn from 
him in the full bloom of manhood, when already he had 
eased the hoary head of half its load of care. The cause 
of this scene also is infringement of the organic laws. 
_ If, therefore, we desire to diminish this class of calami- 
ties, we must study and obey the organic laws. As these 
laws operate independently of all others, we may manifest 
the piety of angels, and yet we shall suffer if we neglect 
them.^ If there be any remedy on earth for this class of 
evils, it is obedience to the laws of our constitution, and 



76 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. VII. 



this alone. If, then, these laws be fundamental— if the 
consequences of disobeying them be so formidable, and 
if escape be so impossible, you will forgive the anxiety with 
which I have endeavoured to expound them. 

I might draw pictures the converse of all that I have 
here represented, and show you health, long life, happiness, 
and prosperity as the rewards of obeying these and the 
other natural laws, and I should still be justified by philo- 
sophy ; but the principle, if admitted, will carry home these 
counter results to your own understandings. 

I beg permission further to remark that all philosophy 
and theology which have been propounded by men ignorant 
of these laws, may be expected to be imperfect ; and that, 
therefore, we arrogate no undue superiority in refusing to 
yield the convictions of our own judgments to the dictates 
of such guides, who had not sufficient data on which to 
found their opinions. The events of human life, viewed 
through the medium of their principles, and of the philo- 
sophy which I am now expounding, must appear in very 
different lights. In their eyes many events appear inscrut- 
able which to us are clear. According to our view, an 
all-wise and beneficent Creator has bestowed on us, the 
highest of His terrestrial creatures, the gift of reason, and 
has arranged the whole world as a theatre for its exercise. 

In concluding, it is proper to add one observation. Man- 
kind have lived so long without becoming acquainted with 
the organic laws, and have, in consequence, so extensively 
transgressed them, that there are few individuals in civilised 
society who do not bear in their persons, to a greater or a 
less extent, imperfections derived from this source. It is 
impossible, therefore, even for the most anxious disciples of 
the new doctrine, all at once to yield perfect obedience to 
these laws. If none were to marry in whose family stock, 
and in whose individual person, any traces of serious depar- 
tures from the organic laws were to be found, the civilised 
world would become a desert. The return to obedience 
must be gradual, and the accomplishment of it the result of 
time. 

It is deeply mysterious that man should have been so 
formed as to err for thousands of years through ignorance of 
his own constitution and the laws under which he suffers or 
enjoys ; but it is equally mysterious that the globe itself 
underwent the successive revolutions revealed by geology, 
destroying myriads of living creatures, and extinguishing 



lect. VII.] THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 



whole races of beings, before it attained its present state. 
It is equally mysterious, also, why the earth presents such 
striking inequalities of soil and climate — in some regions so 
beautiful, so delightful, so prolific : in others so dreary, 
sterile, and depressing. It is equally mysterious that men 
have been created mortal creatures, living, even at the best, 
but for a season on the earth, and then yielding their places 
to successors, whose tenures will be as brief as their own. 

These are mysteries which reason cannot penetrate, and 
for which fancy cannot account ; but they all relate, not to 
our conduct here, but to the will of God in the creation of 
the universe. Although we cannot unravel the counsels of 
the Omnipotent, that is no reason why we should not study 
and obey His laws. What He has presented to us we are 
bound to accept with gratitude at His hand as a gift ; but in 
using it we are called on to exercise our reason, the noblest 
of His boons ; and we may rest assured that no impenetrable 
darkness will hang over the path of our duty when we shall 
have fairly opened our eyes and our understandings to the 
study of His works. 

There is no difficulty in believing that man, having received 
reason, was intended to use it — that by neglecting to do so, 
he has suffered evils — and that when he shall duly employ 
it, his miseries will diminish ; and this is all that I am now 
teaching. It may be inexplicable why we should not earlier 
have gone into the road that leads to happiness ; but let us 
not hesitate to enter it now, if we see it fairly open before us. 

Next to the duty of providing for the physical health and 
enjoyment of their children, parents are bound to train and 
educate them properly, so as to fit them for the discharge of 
the duties of life. The grounds of this obligation are obvious. 
The human body and mind consist of a large assemblage of 
organs and faculties, each possessing native energy and an 
extensive sphere of action, and capable of being used or 
abused, according as it is directed. The extensive range of 
these powers — a prime element in the dignity of man — renders 
education exceedingly important. As parents are the authors 
and guardians of beings thus endowed, it is clearly their 
duty to train their faculties, and to direct them to their 
proper objects. " To send an uneducated child into the 
world/' says Paley, " is little better than to turn out a mad 
dog or a wild beast into the streets." 

To^ conduct education properly, it is necessary to know the 
physical and mental constitution of the being to be educated, 



73 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. vn. 



and also the world in which he is to be an actor. Generally 
speaking, the former knowledge is not possessed, and the 
latter object is very little regarded. How many parents are 
able to call up, even in their own minds, any satisfactory 
view of the mental faculties (with their objects and spheres 
of action) which they aim at training in their children ? 
How many add to this knowledge an acquaintance with the 
physical constitution of the human being, and of the kind of 
treatment which is best calculated to develop favourably its 
energies and capabilities 1 Nay, who can point out even a 
body of professional teachers who are thus highly accom- 
plished ? I fear few of us can do so. 

I do not blame either parents or teachers for the present 
imperfect state of their knowledge, because they themselves 
were not taught ; indeed, the information here described did 
not exist a few years ago, and it exists but to a very limited 
extent still. Ignorance, therefore, is our misfortune rather 
than our fault ; and my sole object in adverting to its magni- 
tude is to present us with motives to remove it. While it 
continues so profound and extensive as it has hitherto 
generally been, sound and salutary education can no more be 
accomplished than you can cause light to shine forth out of 
darkness. 

Scotland has long boasted of her superior education : but 
her eyes are now opening to the groundlessness of this pre- 
tension. In May, 1835, Dr. Welsh, in the General Assembly, 
told the nation that Protestant Germany, and even some 
parts of Catholic Germany, are, in that respect, far before us. 
The public mind is becoming so much alive to our de- 
ficiencies, that better prospects open up for the future. 

The objects of education are — to strengthen the faculties 
that are too weak, to restrain those that are too vigorous, to 
store the intellect with moral, religious, scientific, and 
general knowledge, and to direct all to their proper objects. 
In cultivating the intellect, we should bear in view^ that 
external nature is as directly adapted to our different intel- 
lectual powers as light is to # the eye ; and that the whole 
economy of our constitution is arranged on the principle that 
we shall study the qualities and relations of external objects, 
apply them to our use, and also adapt our conduct to their 
operation. 

The three great means of education are domestic training, 
public schools, and literature or books. The first will be im- 
proved by instructing parents ; the second by the diffusion 



lect. vii. ] THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 79 

of knowledge among the people at large ; while the third is 
now— through the efforts of those philanthropists who have 
given birth to really cheap moral and scientific literature 
(particularly Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh)— placed 
within the reach of every class of the community. 

In the present course of Lectures I am treating merely of 
duties; and when I point out to you the foundation and 
extent of the duty of educating your children, it is all that 
I can accomplish. I cannot here discuss the manner in 
which you may best discharge this obligation. After you 
have become acquainted with Anatomy and Physiology as 
the keys to the physical constitution of man ; with the 
Philosophy of Mind as^ the development of his mental con- 
stitution ; with Chemistry, Natural History, and Natural 
Philosophy as expositions of the external world, and wich 
Political Economy and Moral Philosophy as the sciences of 
human action : you will be in possession of the rudimentary 
or elementary knowledge necessary to enable you to compre- 
hend and profit by a course of lectures on practical 
education, which is really the application of this knowledge 
to the most important of all purposes : that of training the 
body to health, and the mind to virtue, intelligence, and 
happiness. 

The process of education consists in training faculties and 
communicating knowledge ; and it appears to me to be 
about as hopeless a task to attempt to perform this duty by 
mere rules and directions as it was for the Israelites to make 
bricks in Egypt without straw. I am the more anxious to 
insist on this point, because no error is more common in the 
practical walks of life than the belief that a parent can 
learn how to educate a child without undergoing the labour 
of educating himself. Many parents of both sexes, but par- 
ticularly mothers, have told me, that if I would lecture on 
Education, they would come and hear me, because they 
considered the education of their children to be a duty, and 
were disposed to sacrifice the time necessary for obtaining 
instruction how to discharge it. 

When I recommended them to begin by studying 
Physiology, Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, and the Philo- 
sophy of Mind, at least to such an extent as to be able to 
comprehend the nature of the body and mind which they 
proposed to train, and the objects by which the mind and 
body are surrounded, and on which education is intended to 
enable them to act — they instantly declared that they had 



so 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. vn. 



no time for these extensive inquiries, and that information 
about education was what they wanted, as it alone was 
necessary to their object. I told them, in vain, that these 
were preliminary steps to any available knowledge of educa- 
tion. They were so ignorant of mind and of its faculties 
and relations, that they could not conceive this to be the 
case, and refused to attend these courses of instruction. 

The next duty of parents is to provide suitably for the out- 
fit of their children in the world. If I am right in the funda- 
mental principle that happiness consists in well-regulated 
activity of the various functions of the body and the mind, 
and that the world is designedly arranged by the Creator 
with a view to the maintenance of our powers in this con- 
dition of activity — it follows that a parent who shall have 
provided a good constitution for his child, preserved him in 
sound health, thoroughly educated him, trained him to some 
useful calling, and supported him until he shall have become 
capable of exercising it, will have discharged the duty of 
maintenance in its highest and best sense. 

It is of much importance to children to give them correct 
views of the real principles, machinery, and objects of life, 
and to train them to act systematically in relation to them, 
in their habitual conduct. What should we think of a mer- 
chant who should embark himself, his wife, family, and 
fortune, on board of a ship, take the command of it 
himself, and set sail on a voyage of adventure without 
knowledge of navigation, without charts, and without 
having any particular port of destination in view? We 
should consider him as a lunatic. And yet many men 
are launched forth on the sea of active life as ill pro- 
vided with knowledge and objects as the individual here 
imagined. 

Suppose, however, our adventurous navigator to use the 
precaution of placing himself under convoy, to attach him- 
self to a fleet, to sail when they sailed, and to stop when they 
stopped, we should still lament his ignorance, and reckon 
the probabilities great of his running foul of his companions 
in the voyage, foundering in a storm, being wrecked on 
shoals or sunken rocks, or making an unproductive specu- 
lation, even if he safely attained a trading port. 

This simile appears to me to be scarcely an exaggeration 
of the condition in which young men in general embark on 
the business of the world. The great mass of society is 
the fleet to which they attach themselves ; it is moving 



LECT. VII.] 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 



81 



onwards, and they move with it ; sometimes it is 
favoured with prosperity, sometimes overtaken by adversity, 
and they passively undergo its various fates ; sometimes 
they make shipwreck of themselves by running foul of their 
neighbours' interests, or by deviating from the course, and 
encountering hazards peculiarly their own ; but in all they 
do, and in all they suffer, they obey an impulse from with- 
out, and rarely pursue any definite object, except the 
acquisition of wealth ; and they follow even that without 
a systematic plan. 

In rude ages the leaders and the people loved " the pride, 
pomp, and circumstance of glorious war/' they moved to 
the sound of the trumpet and rejoiced in the clang of arms. 
In our day, the leaders steer to wealth and fame, and the 
mass toils after them as best it may. In one year, a 
cotton mania seizes the leaders, and vast portions of the 
people are infected with the disease. In another year, a 
mania for joint-stock companies attacks them, and their 
followers again catch the infection. In a third year, a fever 
for railroads seizes on them, and all rush into speculations 
in stock. 

In these varying aspects of social movements we discover 
nothing like a well-considered scheme of action adopted 
from knowledge, and pursued to its results. The leaders 
and the multitude appear equally to be moved by impulses 
which control and correct each other by collision and con- 
cussion, but in each of which thousands of individuals are 
crushed to death, although the mass escapes and continues 
to move forward in that course which corresponds to the 
direction of the last force which was applied to it. 

It appears to me that by correct and enlarged knowledge 
of human nature and of the external world, the young 
might be furnished with a chart and plan of life suited to 
their wants, desires, and capacities as rational beings. If 
they should subsequently become leaders, this would enable 
them to steer the social course with greater precision and 
advantage than has been done in bygone times ; or, if they 
remained humble members of the body-politic, to shape 
their individual courses, so as in some degree to avoid the 
collisions and concussions which reckless ardour, in alliance 
with ignorance, is ever encountering. 

Under the present system of impulsive and imitative 
action, the one or the other of two errors generally infects 
the youthful mind. If the parents of a family have long 

G 



82 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



|LECT. VII. 



struggled with pecuniary difficulties and the depression of 
poverty, but ultimately, after much exertion and painful 
self-denial, have attained to easy circumstances, they teach 
their children almost to worship wealth ; and at the same 
time fill their minds with vivid ideas of laborious exertions, 
sacrifices, difficulties, cares, and troubles, as almost the only 
occurrences of life. 

They represent expense and enjoyment as closely allied 
with sin ; and young persons thus trained, if they possess 
well-constituted brains, often become rich, but rarely reap 
any reasonable satisfaction from their earthly existence. 
They plod, and toil, and save, and invest ; they are often 
religious, on the principle of laying up treasures in heaven ; 
but they cultivate neither their moral nor their intellectual 
faculties, and at the close of life they complain that all is 
vanity and vexation of spirit. 

The second error is diametrically the opposite of this one. 
Parents of easy, careless dispositions, who have either in- 
herited wealth or have been successful in business without 
much exertion, generally teach their children the art of 
enjoying life, without that of acquiring the means of doing 
so ; and such children enter into trade, or engage in profes- 
sions, under the settled conviction that the paths of life are 
all level, clear, and smooth ; that they need only to put the 
machinery of business into motion ; and that thereafter all 
will go smoothly forward, affording them funds and leisure 
for enjoyment, with little anxiety and very moderate exertion. 

Young persons thus instructed, if they do not possess 
Cautiousness and Conscientiousness, go gaily on in active 
life for a brief space of time, and then become the victims 
of a false system and of inexperience. They are ruined, 
and suffer countless privations. The errors of both these 
modes of training the young should be avoided. 

After health, education, and virtuous habits, the best 
provision that a parent can make for his son is to furnish 
him with sound views of his real situation as a member of 
the social body. The Creator having destined man to live 
in society, the social world is so arranged that an individual 
illuminated by a knowledge of the laws which regulate 
social prosperity, by dedicating himself to a useful pursuit, 
and fulfilling ably the duties connected with it, will meet 
with very nearly as certain a reward, in the means of sub- 
sistence and enjoyment, as if he raised his food directly from 
the soil. 



LEOT. vii.] THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 83 

Astonishing stability and regularity are discoverable in 
the social world, when its constitution and laws of action 
are understood. If legislators would cease toprotect what 
they call national, but what are really class interests, and 
if they would leave the business world free to its spontane- 
ous movements, enforcing by law only the observance of 
justice, the labourer, artisan, manufacturer, and professional 
practitioner would find the demands for their labour, goods, 
or other contributions to the social welfare, to follow with 
so much constancy and regularity that, with ability, 
attention, and morality on the part of each, they would 
very rarely indeed be left unprovided for. 

In our own country, the duty of teaching sound and 
practical views of the nature of man as an individual, and 
of the laws which regulate his social condition, ' to the 
young, has become doubly urgent since the passing of the 
Reform Act (1832). Under the previous system of govern- 
ment, only the wealthy w T ere allowed to exercise the political 
franchise ; and as education was a pretty general concomi- 
tant of wealth, power and knowledge (as far as knowledge 
existed) were to a great degree united in the same hands. 

Now, however, when great property is no longer indis- 
pensable to the exercise of political influence, it is necessary 
to extend and improve general education. The middle 
classes of this country have in their own hands the power 
of returning a majority of the House of Commons ; and as 
the Commons hold the strings of the national purse, and, 
w r hen nearly unanimous, exercise an irresistible influence in 
the State, it is obvious that those who elect them ought to 
be educated and rational men.* 

In past ages, government has been conducted too often 
on short-sighted and empirical principles, and rarely on the 
basis of a sound and comprehensive philosophy of man's 
nature and wants. Hence the wars undertaken for futile 
and immoral purposes ; hence the heavy taxes which op- 
press industry and obstruct prosperity ; hence, also, the 
restrictions, protections, and absurd monopolies which 
disgrace the statute-book of the nation : all of which are not 
only direct evils, but are attended by this secondary dis- 
advantage — that they have absorbed the funds, and consumed 
the time and the mental energy which, under a better system, 

* Further extensions of the franchise in recent years have, of course, 
shifted the political centre of gravity to a still lower point. — Ed., 1893. 
G 2 



84 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. VII. 



would have been dedicated to the improvement of national 
and public institutions. 

Henceforth the government of this country must be ani- 
mated by, and must act U£ to, the general intelligence of 
the nation, but it will be impossible for it to advance to 
any considerable extent beyond it. Every patriot, therefore, 
will find in this fact an additional motive to qualify himself 
for expanding the minds and directing the steps of the 
rising generation, that Britain's glory and happiness may 
pass, untarnished and unimpaired, to the remotest posterity 
of virtuous and enlightened men.* 

The question next arises, What provision in money or 
land is a parent bound to make for his children ? To this 
no answer, that would suit all circumstances, can be given. 
As parents cannot carry their wealth to the next world, 
it must of course be left to someone ; and the natural 
feelings of mankind dictate that it should be given to those 
who stand nearest in kindred and highest in merit in relation 
to the testator. 

With respect to children, in ordinary circumstances, this 
cannot be questioned ; for it is clearly the duty of parents 
to do all in their power to make happy the existence of 
those whom they have brought into the world. But differ- 
ence of customs rn different countries, and difference of 
ranks in the same country, render different principles of 
distribution proper. In Great Britain, a nobleman who 
should distribute £100,000 equally among ten children 
would do great injustice to his eldest son, to whom a title 
of nobility would descend, with its concomitant expenses ; 
but a merchant who had realised £100,000 would act more 
wisely and justly in leaving £10,000 to each of ten children, 
than in attempting to found a family by entailing £82,000 

* The remarks in the text apply with still greater force to the 
United States of America. There, the supreme political power is 
wielded by the mass of the people. No rational person will maintain 
that one ignorant man is a proper ruler for a great nation; but 
additions to numbers do not alter the species. Twenty, or a hundred, 
or a thousand ignorant men are not wiser than one of them, while 
they are much more dangerous. They inflame each other's passions, 
keep each other's follies in countenance, and add to each other's 
strength. If the United States, therefore, desire to avoid anarchy 
and ruin, they must educate the mass of their people. [This remark 
has its counterpart in the saying of Mr. Robert Lowe, after the 
passing of the Reform Act of 1867: "Now we must educate our 
masters."— Ed., 1893.] 



LECT. VII.] 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 



85 



on his eldest son, and leaving only £2,000 to each of the 
other nine. 

I consider hereditary titles as an evil to society, and 
desire their abolition ; but while they are permitted to 
exist, the distribution of wealth should bear reference to 
the expenses which they necessarily entail on those who 
inherit them. The United States of America have wisely 
avoided this institution : by the laws of most of these 
States, an equal distribution of the family estate, real and 
personal, among all the children, ensues on the death of the 
parents. This practice appears to me to be wise and 
salutary. It tends to lessen that concentration of all 
thought and desire on themselves and their families 
which is the besetting sin of the rich ; and it teaches parents 
to perceive that the prosperity of their children is indis- 
solubly linked with that of their country. 

As a general rule, parents ought to make the largest 
provisions for those members of their families who are least 
able, from sex, constitution, capacity, or education, to provide 
for themselves. 

In the lower ranks of life, where both sexes engage in 
labour, an equal distribution may, other circumstances 
being equal, be just ; in the middle ranks (in which it is 
the custom for males to engage in business, but in which 
females in general do not), if the parents have a numerous 
family and a moderate fortune, I should consider the sons 
amply provided for by being furnished with education and 
a calling ; while the property of the parents should be given 
chiefly to the dependent daughters. It is impossible, how- 
ever, as I have already hinted, to lay down rules that will 
be universally applicable. 

It is a grave question whether the indefinite accumulation 
of wealth should be allowed ; but however this may be 
determined, there should be no restriction on the power of 
spending and disposing of property. Entails are a great 
abuse, introduced by Self -Esteem and Love of Approbation, 
acting apart from Benevolence and Conscientiousness. 
Reason dictates that wealth should be enjoyed only on the 
condition of the exercise of at least average discretion by its 
possessor ; yet the object of entails is to secure it and its 
attendant influence to certain heirs, altogether independently 
of their intelligence, morality, and prudence. 

Laws have been enacted by which estates may be transmit- 
ted unimpaired from sire to son, through endless generations, 



86 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY, 



[lect. vii. 



although each possessor, in his turn, may be a pattern 
of vice and imbecility. But the law of Nature is too strong 
to be superseded by the legislation of ignorant and pre- 
sumptuous men. The children of intelligent, virtuous, and 
healthy parents are so well constituted as to need no entails 
to preserve their family estates and honours unimpaired ; 
while, on the other hand, descendants with imbecile intellects 
and immoral dispositions are prone, in spite of the strictest 
entail, to tarnish that glory and distinction which the law 
vainly attempts to maintain. 

Accordingly, many families in which superior qualities 
descend flourish for centuries without entails ; whereas 
others, in which immoral or foolish minds are hereditary, 
live in constant privation, notwithstanding the props of 
erroneous laws. Each immoral heir of entail mortgages 
his life-rent right, and lives a beggar and an outcast from 
his artificial sphere of life. 

Obedience to the organic laws affords the only means of 
maintaining family possessions undissolved ; and until men 
shall seek the aid which they present, in order to secure a 
great, virtuous, and flourishing posterity, they will in vain 
frame Acts of Parliament to attain their object. 

Parents, however, have rights as well as duties in relation 
to their children. They are entitled to the produce of the 
child's labour during its nonage ; to its respect and obedi- 
ence ; and, when infirm, to maintenance, if they be in want. 
These rights on the part of parents imply corresponding 
duties incumbent on children. The obligation on children 
to discharge them flows directly from the dictates of Venera- 
tion, Conscientiousness, and Benevolence. 

In the lower and middle ranks of life, parents often com- 
plain of want of respect and obedience on the part of their 
children ; but a common cause of this evil may be found in 
the deficient knowledge, the harsh dispositions, and the 
rude manners of the parents themselves, which are not 
calculated to render them really objects of respect to the 
higher sentiments of their children, especially when, the 
latter are better educated than their parents. 

The mere fact of being father or mother to a child is 
obviously not sufficient to excite its moral affections * The 

* An American clerical Reviewer objected to the text that it 
sets aside the Bible, which commands children to honour their father 
and mother without regard to their qualities. He forgot that the 



LECT. VII.] 



THE DUTIES OF PARENTS. 



87 



parent must manifest superior wisdom^ intelligence, and 
affection, with a desire to promote his child's welfare ; and 
then respect and obedience will naturally follow. The 
attempt to render a child respectful and obedient by merely 
telling it to be so is as little likely to succeed as the en- 
deavour to make it fond of music by assuring it that filial 
duty requires that it should love melody. 

If a parent desire to have docile, affectionate, and 
intelligent children, he must habitually address himself to 
their moral and intellectual powers ; he must make them 
feel that he is wise and good — exhibit himself as the-natural 
object of attachment and respect ; and then, by average 
children, the reciprocal duties of love and obedience will 
not be withheld. 

If parents knew and paid a just regard to the natural 
and reasonable desires of the young, they would be far less 
frequently disobeyed than they actually are. Many of 
their commands forbid the exercise of faculties which in 
children pant for gratification, and which Nature intended 
to be gratified ; and the misery and disappointment con- 
sequent on baulked desire have an effect very different from 
that of disposing to affection and obedience. 

The love of muscular motion, for instance, is irrepressible 
in children, and physiology proves that the voice of Nature 
ought to be listened to ; yet the young are frequently pro- 
hibited from yielding to this instinct, that the family or the 
teacher may not be disturbed by noise ; tasks unsuitable 
to their age and dispositions are imposed ; their health and 
happiness are impaired ; and when peevishness, unpalatable 
to the parents, ensues, the children are blamed for being 
cross and disobedient ! 

In exacting obedience from children, parents should never 
forget that their brains are very differently constituted, 
and that their mental dispositions vary in a corresponding 
degree. The faculty of Veneration is generally late in being 
developed, so that a child may be stubborn and unmanage- 
able under one kind of treatment, or at one age, who will 
prove tractable and obedient under a different discipline, 
or at a future period. 

As some individuals are really born with such deficiencies 

Scriptures require parents to adorn themselves with all the Christian 
virtues, and that the Fifth Commandment obviously implies that 
they shall have fulfilled this duty as the condition of receiving the 
reverence of their children. 



ss 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. VII. 



of the moral faculties as incapacitate them for pursuing 
right courses of action, although they may possess average 
intellectual power, and are free from diseased action of the 
brain ; and as there is no legal method of restraining them 
unless they commit what the law accounts crime : great 
misery is often endured by their relatives in seeing them 
proceed from one step of folly and iniquity to another, until 
they are plunged into irretrievable ruin and disgrace. 

If parents have transmitted to their children well balanced 
and favourably developed brains, and have discharged their 
duty in 'training and educating them, and in fitting them out 
in the world, they will rarely have cause to complain of 
ingratitude or of want of filial piety. Where the brains 
of the children are ill-constituted, or where training and 
education have been neglected or improperly conducted, the 
parents, in reaping sorrow and disappointment from the 
behaviour of their offspring, are only suffering the natural 
consequences of their own actions ; and if these are punish- 
ments, they should read in them an intimation of the Divine 
displeasure of their conduct. 

In proportion to the development and cultivation of the 
moral and intellectual faculties are gratitude and filial 
piety strongly and steadily manifested by children. By the 
well-principled and respectable members of the middle and 
lower ranks, parents are scarcely ever left in destitution by 
their children, if they are at all capable of maintaining 
them ; but among the heartless, reckless, and grossly 
ignorant, this is not uncommon. The legal provision es- 
tablished for the poor has tended to blunt the feelings of 
many individuals in regard to this duty ; yet great and 
beautiful examples of its fulfilment are frequent, and we 
may expect that the number of these will increase as educa- 
tion and improvement advance. 



89 



LECTURE VIII. 

Man as a Social Being. 

I peoceed now to consider those social duties and rights 
which are not strictly domestic. The first subject of inquiry 
is into the origin of society itself. On this question many 
fanciful theories have been given to the world. It has 
engaged the imagination of the poet and the intellect of the 
philosopher. Ovid has described mankind as at first in a 
state of innocence and happiness during what is termed the 
golden age, and as declining gradually into vice and misery 
through the silver, brazen, and iron ages : — 

" The golden age was first, when man, yet new, 

No rule but uncorrupted reason knew ; 

And with a native bent did good pursue. 

Unforced by punishment, unawed by fear, 

His words were simple, and his soul sincere. 

****** 
" No walls were yet ; nor fence, nor moat, nor mound ; 

No drum was heard, nor trumpet's angry sound ; 

Nor swords were forged ; but void of care and crime, 

The soft creation slept away their time. 

****** 
" The flowers unsown, in fields and meadows reigned, 

And western winds immortal springs maintained. 

In following years the bearded corn ensued 

From earth unasked, nor was that earth renewed. 

From veins of valleys milk and nectar broke, 

And honey sweating through the pores of oak." 

To this succeeded too rapidly the silver, the brazen, and 
the iron ages ; which last the world had reached in 
the days of Ovid, and in which, unfortunately, it still 
remains. 

Eousseau, who was rather a poet than a philosopher, has 
written speculations " on the origin and foundations of the 
existing inequalities among men," which have powerfully 
attracted the attention of the learned. He informs us that 
he " sees man such as he must have proceeded from the 
hands of Nature, less powerful than some animals, less 
active than others, but, taking him on the whole, more 



90 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. VIII. 



advantageously organised than any. He sees Mm satisfying 
his hunger under an oak, quenching his thirst at the first 
rivulet, finding his bed under the trees whose fruit had 
afforded him a repast, and thus satisfied to the full of every 
desire."* 

From these premises Eousseau draws the conclusion 
that " the first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, 
took upon himself to cati it 4 mine, 3 and found individuals 
so foolish as to believe him, was the true founder of civil 
society." "What crimes, what wars, what murders, what 
miseries and horrors, would he have spared to the human 
race, who, tearing up the land-marks or filling up the ditches, 
had cried to his equals, 'Beware how you listen to this 
impostor ! You are undone if you forget that the fruits of 
the earth belong to all, and the soil to none ! J n 

The fundamental error in Eousseau's speculations consists 
in his endowing man, in his primitive condition, with what- 
ever faculties he pleases ; or rather, in bestowing upon him 
no principles of action except such as suited his own theory. 
Numerous antagonists have combated these speculations ; 
but their absurdity is so evident, that I do not consider it 
necessary to enter into any lengthened refutation of them. 
The mistake of such theorists is that they assume the mind 
to be altogether a blank — to have no spontaneous desires 
and activity. They imagine it to be similarly constituted 
to the ear, which, in a state of health, hears no sounds 
till they are excited by the vibrations of the air ; and they 
ascribe the origin of almost all our passions and inclinations 
to the circumstances which first evolve them. 

This mode of philosophising resembles that which should 
account for an eruption of Mount Vesuvius by ascribing 
it to the rent in the surface of the mountain, through which 
the lava bursts, instead of attributing it to the mighty 
energies of the volcanic matter buried beneath its rocks. 

Other philosophers besides Eousseau have theorised on 
the constitution of society without previously investigating 
the constitution of the human mind. Lord Karnes, one of 
the shrewdest and most observant philosophers of the old 
school, has taken a more rational view of the origin of 
society. Perceiving that man has been endowed with 
natural aptitudes and desires, he founds upon these every 

* " Discours snr l'Origine et les Fondernens d'Inegalite parmi les 
Horomes." 4to edit., Geneva, 1782, p. 48. 



LECT. VIIT.] 



MAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. 



91 



institution which is universal among mankind. He attributes 
the origin of society to " the social principle." 

Men became hunters from a natural appetite to hunt, and 
by hunting they appeased their hunger. They became 
shepherds from seeing that it was easier to breed tame 
animals than to catch wild ones, after hunting had made 
them scarce. As they were shepherds, population increased, 
and necessity made them desire an increase of food. They 
saw the earth in some climates producing corn spontaneously, 
and the idea arose that by forwarding its growth, and by 
removing obstructing weeds, more corn could be produced ; 
hence they became agriculturists. The idea of property 
sprang from the " hoarding appetite." Lord Karnes ascribes 
the various institutions which exist in society to principles 
innate in the mind, and not to chance, or to factitious 
circumstances. 

Locke and some other writers have assigned the origin of 
society to reason, and have represented it as springing from 
a compact by which individual men surrendered, for the 
general welfare, certain portions of their private rights, and 
submitted to various restraints ; receiving, in return, pro- 
tection and other advantages arising from the social state. 
This idea also is erroneous. Society has always been far 
advanced before the idea of such a compact began to be 
entertained ; and even then it has occurred only to the 
minds of philosophers. 

Man possesses mental faculties endowed with spontaneous 
activity, which give rise to many desires equally definite 
with the appetite for food. Among these are several social 
instincts, from the spontaneous activity of which society 
has obviously proceeded. 

From the three faculties of Amativeness, Philoprogenitive- 
ness, and Adhesiveness the matrimonial compact derives 
its origin. Adhesiveness has a yet wider sphere of action : 
it is the gregarious instinct, or propensity to congregate ; it 
desires the society of our fellow-men generally. Hence its 
existence indicates that we are intended to live in the social 
state. The nature and objects of other faculties besides 
Adhesiveness lead to the same conclusion. Neither Bene- 
volence, which prompts us to confer benefits — nor Love of 
Approbation, whose gratification is the applause and good 
opinion of others — nor Veneration, which gives a tendency 
to respect, and to yield obedience to, superiors — nor Con- 
scientiousness, which holds the balance between competing 



92 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. VIII. 



rights — has full scope, except in general society. The 
domestic circle is too contracted for their gratification. 

The adaptation of the intellectual faculties to society is 
equally conspicuous. The faculty of Language implies the 
presence of intelligent beings, with whom we may com- 
municate by speech. The faculties of Causality and Com- 
parison, which are the fountains of reasoning, imply our 
associating with other intellectual beings with whose 
perceptions and experience we may compare our own. 
Without combination, what advance could be made in 
science, arts, or manufactures'? As food is related to 
hunger, and light to the sense of vision, so is society 
adapted to the social faculties of man. The presence of 
human beings is indispensable to the gratification and 
excitement of our mental powers in general. 

The balmy influence of society on the human mind may 
be discovered in the vivacious and generally happy aspect 
of those who live in the bosom of a family, or who mingle 
freely with the world, contrasted with the cold, starched, 
and stagnant manners and expression of those who retire 
from social sympathies and life. 

A man whose muscular, digestive, respiratory, and circu- 
lating systems greatly predominate in energy over the brain 
and the nervous system stands less in need of society to 
gratify his mental faculties than an individual oppositely 
constituted. He delights in active muscular exercise, and 
is never so happy as with the elastic turf beneath his feet, 
and the blue vault of heaven over his head. But where 
the brain and the nervous system are more energetic, there 
arise mental wants which can be gratified only in society. 
.Residence in a city is felt indispensable to enjoyment. 
The mind flags and becomes feeble when not stimulated by 
collision and converse with kindred spirits. Hence, the 
social state appears to be as natural to man as it is to 
the bee, the raven, or the sheep. This question being set 
at rest, the duties implied in the constitution of society are 
next to be considered- 

The first duty imposed on man in relation to society is 
industry — a duty the origin and sanction of which are 
easily discoverable. Man is sent into the world naked, 
unprotected, and unprovided for. He does not, like the 
lower animals, find his skin clothed with a sufficient 
covering of hair, feathers, or scales, but must provide gar- 
ments for himself. He cannot perch on a bough, or burrow 



LECT. VIII.1 MAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. 



93 



in a hole, but he must rear a dwelling to protect himself 
from the weather. He does not, like the ox, find his 
nourishment under his feet, but he must hunt, or cultivate 
the ground. To capacitate him for the performance of 
these duties he has received a body fitted for labour, and 
a mind calculated to animate and direct his exertions ; 
while the external world has been created with the wisest 
adaptation to his constitution. 

Many of us have been taught, by our religious instructors, 
that labour is a curse imposed by God on man as a punish- 
ment for sin. I remarked in the first Lecture that Philo- 
sophy canuot tell whether sin was or tvas not the cause 
which induced the Almighty to constitute man such as we 
now see him— an organised being composed of bones, 
muscles, blood-vessels, nerves, respiratory and digestive 
organs, and a brain calculated to manifest a rational mind, 
and to confer on external nature its present qualities, 
adapted to give scope and exercise to these powers — but 
that, constituted as we actually are, labour which, in its 
proper sense, means exertion, either bodily or mental, for 
useful purposes, is not only no calamity, but is the grand 
fountain of our enjoyment. 

Unless we exercise our limbs, what pleasure can they 
afford to us J If we do not exercise them, they become 
diseased, and we are punished with positive pain ; hence 
the duty of bodily exertion is a law of God, written in our 
frames as strikingly as if it were emblazoned on the sky. 
Constituted as we are, it is not labour, but inactivity, that 
is an evil — that is visited by God with suffering and dis- 
ease. The misery of idleness has been a favourite theme 
of moralists in every age, and its baneful influence on the 
bodily health has equally attracted the notice of the phy- 
sician and of general observers. 

Happiness^ in truth, is nothing but the gratification of 
active faculties ; and hence, the more active our faculties 
are, within the limits of health, the greater is our enjoy- 
ment. 

" Life's cares are comforts ; such, by Heaven designed : 
He that has none must make them, or be wretched. 
Cares are employments, and without employ 
The soul is on a rack, the rack of rest, 
To souls most adverse— action all their joy." 

The prevalent notion that labour is an evil must have 



94 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. Till. 



arisen from ignorance of the constitution of man, and 
from contemplating the effects of labour carried to 
excess. 

Bodily and mental activity, therefore, being the law of 
our nature, and the fountain of our enjojmient, I observe, 
first, that they may be directed to useful or to useless 
purposes ; and that they may be carried to excess. Exer- 
tion for the attainment of useful objects is generally termed 
labour, and because of its utility, men have, with strange 
perversity, looked upon it as degrading ! Exertion for mere 
capricious self-gratification, and directed to no useful end, 
has, on the other hand, been dignified with the name of 
pleasure, and is esteemed honourable. These notions appear 
to be injurious errors, which obtain no countenance from 
the natural laws. 

Indeed, the proposition ought to be reversed. Pleasure 
increases in proportion to the number of faculties employed, 
and it becomes purer and more lasting the higher the 
faculties are which are engaged in the enterprise. The 
pursuit of a great and beneficial object, such as providing 
for a family, or discharging an important duty to society, 
calls into energetic action not only a greater variety of 
faculties, but also faculties of a higher order — namely, the 
moral sentiments and the intellect— than those frivolous 
occupations, miscalled pleasures, which are directed to 
self-indulgence and the gratification of vanity alone. 

The reason why labour has so generally been regarded as 
an evil is its very unequal distribution among individuals — 
many contriving to exempt themselves from all participa- 
tion in it (though not to the increase of their own happiness), 
while others have been oppressed with an excessive share. 
Both extremes are improper ; and the hope may reasonably 
be indulged that when society shall become so far en- 
lightened as to esteem that honourable which God has 
rendered at once profitable and pleasant — and when labour 
shall be properly distributed and confined within the 
bounds of moderation— it will assume its true aspect, and 
be hailed by all as a rational source of enjoyment. 

Regarding bodily and mental activity, therefore, as insti- 
tutions of the Creator, I observe, in the next place, that, as 
man has been destined for society, a division of occupations 
is indispensable to his welfare. If every one were to insist 
on cultivating the ground, there would be no manufacturers, 
no carpenters, or builders. If all were to prefer the exercise 



lect. vili.] MAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. 95 

of the constructive arts, we should have no agriculturists 
and no food. 

The Creator has arranged the spontaneous division of 
labour among men by the simplest, yet most effectual, 
means. He has bestowed the mental faculties in different 
degrees of relative strength on different individuals, and 
thereby has given them at once the desire and the aptitude 
for different occupations. The new philosophy renders clear 
the origin of differences of employment. 

The metaphysicians treat only of general powers of the • 
mind. They enumerate among the active principles ambi- 
tion, the love of power, the love of kindred, and so forth ; 
while their catalogue of intellectual faculties embraces only 
Perception, Conception, Abstraction, Attention, Memory, 
Judgment, and Imagination. Many of them deny that 
individuals differ in the degrees in which they possess these 
powers ; and ascribe all actual differences to education, 
association, habit, and a variety of accidental circum- 
stances. 

With their philosophy for our guide, we are called on to 
explain by what process of arrangement, or by what chapter 
of accidents, the general powers of Perception, Memory, 
Judgment, and Imagination fit one man to be a carpenter, 
another to be a sailor, a third a merchant, a fourth an 
author, a fifth a painter, a sixth an engineer ; and how 
they communicate to each a special predilection for his 
trade. How comes it to pass, according to their views, 
that some who utterly fail in one pursuit succeed to 
admiration in another ? and whence is it that there was 
no jostling in the community at first, and that very little 
harsh friction occurs now in arranging the duties to be 
performed by each individual member 2 

We next require a solution of the problem — by what 
cause one man's ambition takes the direction of war, an- 
other's that of agriculture, and a third's that of painting 
or of making speeches, if all their _ native aptitudes and 
tendencies are the same, both in kind and degree ; how 
one man delights to spend his life in accumulating wealth, 
and another knows no pleasure equal to that of dissipating 
and squandering it ? 

I do not detain you with the ingenious theories that have 
been propounded by the metaphysicians as solutions of 
these questions, but come at once to the explanation 
afforded by the new philosophy. It shows that man has 



96 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. vm. 



received a variety of primitive faculties, each having a 
specific sphere of action, and standing in specific relations 
to certain external objects, that he takes an interest in 
these objects in consequence of their aptitude to gratify 
his faculties. 

Every sane individual of the human race possesses the 
same faculties, but these faculties are combined in different 
relative proportions in different individuals, and give rise 
to differences of talents and dispositions. Hence, the 
individual in whom Combativeness and Destructiveness 
are the leading faculties desires to be a soldier ; he in 
whom Veneration, Hope, and Wonder are the strongest 
desires to be a minister of religion ; he in whom Con- 
structiveness, Weight, and Form predominate desires to 
be a mechanician ; and he in whom Constructiveness, 
Form, Colouring, Imitation, and Ideality predominate is 
inspired with the love of painting. 

The Creator, by bestowing on all the race the same 
faculties, and endowing them with the same functions, 
has fitted us for constituting one common family. In 
consequence of our common nature, we understand each 
other's instincts, desires, talents, and pursuits, and are 
prepared to act in concert ; while by the superiority in 
particular powers conferred on particular individuals, variety 
of character and talent, and the division of labour, are 
effectually provided for. 

The division of labour, therefore, is not an expedient 
devised by man's sagacity, but a direct result of his con- 
stitution : exactly as happens in the case of some of the 
inferior animals, which live in society and divide their 
duties without possessing the attribute of reason. The 
differences in the faculties of different individuals afford 
another proof that man has been created expressly to live 
and act as a social being. 

Gradations of social condition being thus institutions of 
God, those men are wild enthusiastic dreamers, and not 
philosophers, who contemplate their abolition. This pro- 
position, however, does not imply approval of artificial 
distinctions of rank, independent of natural endowments. 
These are the inventions of ignorant and selfish men ; they 
are paltry devices to secure, by means of parchments, the 
advantages of high qualities, without the necessary pos- 
session of them. 

As civilisation and knowledge advance, these will be 



Lect. VIII.] MAN AS A SOCIAL BEING. 97 

renounced as ridiculous, like the ponderous wigs, cocked 
hats, laced coats, and swords of bygone centuries. It i3 
unfortunate for society when a fool or a rogue is the possessor 
of high rank and title • for these attract the respect of 
many to his foolish or vicious deeds, and to his erroneous 
opinions. 

Nature has instituted still another cause of social differ- 
ences. Man has received faculties, or capacities, adapted 
to external nature, but he has not been inspired with infor- 
mation concerning the qualities and adaptations of objects, 
or with intuitive knowledge of the best manner of applying 
his own powers. He has been left to find out these by 
observation and reflection. 

If we select twenty men whose mental faculties, tempera- 
ment, and bodily constitution are alike, but of whom ten 
have sedulously applied their faculties to the study of 
Nature and her capabilities, while the other ten have sought 
pleasure only in trivial pursuits, it is obvious that in all 
social attainments the former will speedily surpass the 
latter. If both classes wished to build a house, you would 
find the observing and reflecting men in possession of the 
lever, the pulley, the hammer, the axe, and the saw ; while 
the hunters and the fishers would be pushing loads with 
their hands, or lifting them with their arms, and shaping 
timber with sharp-edged stones. 

In civilised society the same results appear. An indivi- 
dual who has learned how to use his natural powers to the 
best advantage — in other words, who has acquired know- 
ledge and skill— is decidedly superior to him who, although 
born with equal native talents, has never been taught the 
best method of applying them. 

When we view Nature's scheme of social gradation, we 
recognise in it an institution beneficial to all. The man 
who stands at the bottom of the scale does so because he is 
actually lowest either in natural endowments or in acquired 
skill ; but even in that lowest rank he enjoys advantages 
superior to those he could have commanded by his talents, 
if he had stood alone. He derives many advantages from 
the abilities and acquirements of his fellow-men. In point 
of fact, an able-bodied, steady, and respectable labourer in 
Great Britain is better clothed, better fed, and better 
lodged, than the chief of a savage tribe. 



98 



LECTURE IX. 

The Condition of Society. 

In the last Lecture we considered the origins of society, the 
division of labour, and differences of rank. I proceed to 
discuss an objection which may be urged against some of 
the views then stated— namely, that occasionally persons of 
defective moral principle, though of considerable talent — 
and, in other instances, weak and indolent men, are found 
in possession of high rank and fortune, while able, good, 
and enlightened individuals stand low in the scale of public 
honour. Let us endeavour to investigate the cause of 
this anomaly, and inquire whether the evil admits of a 
remedy. 

Man is endowed with two great classes of faculties, so 
different in their nature, desires, and objects, that he 
appears almost like two beings conjoined in one : I refer to 
the animal propensities and the moral sentiments. All the 
propensities have reference to self-sustenance, self -gratifica- 
tion, or self-aggrandisement, and do not give rise to a single 
feeling of disinterested love or regard for the happiness of 
other beings. Even the domestic affections, when acting 
independently of the moral sentiments, prompt us to seek 
only a selfish gratification, without regard to the welfare of 
the beings who afford it. 

Examples of this kind may be met with every day. 
Parents deficient in intellect, in their ecstasies of fondness 
for their offspring, inspired by Philoprogenitiveness, often 
spoil them, and render them miserable : which is just in- 
dulging their own affections, without enlightened regard 
for the welfare of their objects. When Combativeness and 
Destructiveness are active, their object is either to assail 
other individuals, or to protect ourselves against their 
aggressions. When Acquisitiveness is pursuing its objects, 
the appropriation of property to ourselves is its aim. 

When Self -Esteem inspires us with its emotions, we are 
prompted to place ourselves, and our own interests and 
gratifications, first in all our considerations. When Love 
of Approbation is supremely active, we desire esteem, glory, 
praise, or advancement, as public acknowledgments of our 



lect. ix.] THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 99 

own superiority over other men. Secretiveness and 
Cautiousness, from which arise savoir faire and circum- 
spection, are apt allies of the selfish desires. 

All these feelings are necessary to the subsistence of the 
individual or of the race, are good in themselves, and 
produce beneficial results when directed by the higher 
faculties. But, nevertheless, self-gratification is their 
primary object, and the advantages conferred by them 
on others follow only as secondary consequences. 

The other class of faculties alluded to is that of the 
moral sentiments — Benevolence, Veneration, and Conscien- 
tiousness ; these take a loftier, a more disinterested and 
more beneficent range. Benevolence desires universal 
happiness. It is not satisfied with mere self-enjoyment. 
As long as it sees a sentient being miserable, whom it 
could render happy, it desires to do so ; and its own satis- 
faction is not complete till that be accomplished. Venera- 
tion desires to invest with esteem, and to treat with defer- 
ence and respect, every human being who manifests virtue 
and wisdom ; and to adore the Creator as the fountain of 
universal perfection. Conscientiousness desires to introduce 
and maintain an all-pervading justice ; a state of society in 
which the merits of the humblest individuals shall not be 
overlooked, but shall be appreciated and rewarded ; and in 
which the pretensions of the egotist and the ambitious 
shall be circumscribed within the limits of their real 
deserts. 

There are certain faculties which may be regarded as 
auxiliaries of these. Ideality desires to realise the excellent 
and the beautiful in every object and action. It longs for 
a world in which all things shall be fair and lovely, and 
shall be invested with the most perfect attributes of form, 
colour, proportion and arrangement, and in which the human 
mind shall manifest only dispositions in harmony with such 
a scene. Wonder desires the new and the untried, and 
serves to urge us forward in our career of improvement ; 
while the sentiment of Hope smooths and gilds the whole 
vista of futurity presented to the mind's eye ; representing 
every desire as possible to be fulfilled, and every good 
as attainable. 

The intellectual faculties are the servants equally of both 
orders of faculties. Our powers of observation and reflec- 
tion may be employed in perpetrating the blackest crimes, 
or in performing the most beneficent actions, according 
H 2 



100 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. IX, 



as they are directed by the propensities or by the moral 
sentiments. 

We have seen that among these faculties there are 
several which render man a social being : and we find him, 
accordingly, living in society in all circumstances and in all 
stages of refinement. Society does not all at once attain 
the highest degree of virtue, intelligence, and refinement. 
Like the individual, it passes through stages of infancy, 
youth, full vigour, and decay. Hence it has different 
standards at different times, by which it estimates the 
qualities of its individual members. 

In the rudest state, the selfish faculties have nearly 
unbridled sway — rapine, fraud, tyranny, and violence 
prevail ; while, on the other hand, among a people in 
whom the moral sentiments are vigorous, private advantage 
is pursued with a constant respect to the rights of other 
men. In the former state of society we should naturally 
expect to see selfish, ambitious, and unprincipled men, who 
are strong in mind and body, in possession of the highest 
rank and the greatest wealth ; because, in the contention of 
pure selfishness, such qualities alone are fitted to succeed. 
In a society animated by the moral sentiments and the 
intellect as the governing powers, we should expect to 
find places of the highest honour and advantage occupied 
by the most moral, most intelligent, and most useful mem- 
bers of the community : because these qualities would be 
most esteemed. 

The former state of society characterises all barbarous 
nations ; and the latter, which is felt by well-constituted 
minds to be the great object of human desire, has never yet 
been fully realised. By many, the idea of realising it is 
regarded as Utopian ; by others, its accomplishment is 
believed possible ; by all, it is admitted to be desirable. It 
is desired, because the moral sentiments exist, and instinc- 
tively long for the reign of justice, good-will, refinement, 
and enjoyment, and because they are grieved by the suffer- 
ing which so largely abounds in the present condition of 
humanity. 

The question is an important one, Whether man be 
destined to proceed, in this world, for an indefinite time, 
constantly desiring pure and moral institutions, yet ever 
devoting himself to inferior objects — to the unsatisfying 
labours of misdirected selfishness, vanity, and ambition : or 
whether he will, at length, be permitted to realise his 



LECT. ix.] THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 



101 



loftier conceptions, and enter on a thoroughly rational state 
of existence. • 

The fact of the higher sentiments being constituent 
elements of our nature seems to warrant us in expecting an 
illimitable improvement in the condition of society. Unless 
our nature had been fitted to rise up to the standard which 
these faculties desire to reach, we may presume that they 
would not have been bestowed on us. They cannot have 
been intended merely to dazzle us with phantom illusions of 
purity, intelligence, and happiness, which we are destined 
ever to pursue in vain. 

But what encouragement does experience afford for trust- 
ing that under any future social arrangements rank will be 
awarded only to merit 1 Man is a progressive being, and, 
in his social institutions, he ascends through the scale of his 
faculties, very much as an individual does in rising from 
infancy to manhood. In his social capacity he commences 
with institutions and pursuits related almost exclusively to 
the simplest of his animal desires and his most obvious 
intellectual perceptions. 

Men, in their early condition, are described by historians 
as savages, wandering amidst wide-spreading forests or 
over extensive savannas, clothed in the skins of animals, 
drawing their chief sustenance from the chase, and generally 
waging bloody wars with their neighbours. This is the 
outward manifestation of feeble intellect and Constructive- 
ness, of dormant Ideality, of very weak moral sentiments, 
and of active propensities. In this condition there is little 
distinction of rank, except the superiority conferred on 
individuals by age, by energy, or by courage ; and there is no 
division of labour or diversity of employment, except that 
the most painful and laborious duties are imposed on the 
women. All stand so near the bottom of the scale, that 
there is yet little scope for social distinctions. 

In the next stage, we find men congregated into tribes, 
possessed of cattle, and assuming the aspect of a community, 
although still migratory in their habits. This state implies 
the possession of implements and utensils fabricated by 
means of ingenuity and industry ; also a wider range of 
social attachment, and so much of moral principle as to 
prompt individuals to respect the property of each other in 
their own tribe. This is the pastoral condition, and it pro- 
claims an advance in the development of Intellect, Con- 
structiveness, Adhesiveness, and the moral sentiments 



102 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IX. 



In this stage, however, of the social progress there is still 
a very imperfect manifestation of the moral and intellectual 
faculties. Acquisitiveness, unenlightened by intellect, and 
undirected by morality, desires to acquire wealth by plunder 
rather than by industry ; and the intellectual faculties have 
not yet comprehended the advantages of manufactures 
and commerce. In this stage, men regard neighbouring 
tribes as their natural enemies — make war on them, spoil 
their substance, murder their males, and carry their females 
and children into captivity. They conceive that they 
crown themselves with glory by these achievements. 

In such a state of society, it is obvious that those indivi- 
duals who possess in the highest degree the qualities most 
useful to the community, and most esteemed according to 
their standard of virtue, will be advanced to the highest 
rank, with all its attendant advantages and honours. Great 
physical strength, an active temperament, with predominat- 
ing Combativeness, Destructiveness, Self-esteem, Love of 
Approbation, and Firmness, with a very limited portion 
of morality and reflecting intellect, will carry an individual 
to the rank of a chief or leader of his countrymen. 

The next step in the progress of society is the agricul- 
tural condition : and this implies a still higher evolution of 
intellect and moral sentiment. To sow in spring with a 
view of reaping in autumn requires not only economy and 
prudence in preserving stores and stock, and the exercise of 
ingenuity in fabricating implements of husbandry, but a 
stretch of reflection embracing the whole intermediate 
period, and a subjugation of the impatient animal propen- 
sities to the intellectual powers. To ensure to him who 
sows that he shall also reap requires a general combination 
in defence of property, and a practical acknowledgment of 
the claims of justice, which indicate decided activity in the 
moral sentiments. 

In order to reach the highest rank in this stage of society, 
individuals must possess a greater endowment of reflecting 
intellect and moral sentiment, in proportion to their animal 
propensities, than was necessary to attain supremacy in the 
pastoral state. 

When nations become commercial, and devote them- 
selves to manufactures, their pursuits demand the activity 
of still higher endowments, together with extensive know- 
ledge of natural objects, and their relations and qualities. 
In this condition, arts and sciences are sedulously culti- 



lect. ix.] TEE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 103 

vated ; processes of manufacture of great complexity, and 
extending over a long period of time, are successfully con- 
ducted ; extensive transactions between individuals, living 
often in different hemispheres, and who probably never saw 
each other personally, are carried on with regularity, in- 
tegrity, and despatch ; laws regulating the rights and duties 
of individuals engaged in the most complicated transactions 
are enacted ; and this complicated social machinery moves, 
on the whole, with a smoothness and regularity which are 
truly admirable. 

Such a scene is a high manifestation of moral and intel- 
lectual power ; and man, in this condition, appears, for the 
first time, invested with his rational character. Observation 
shows that the organs of the superior faculties develop 
themselves more fully in proportion to the advances of 
civilisation, and that they are de facto largest in the most 
moral and enlightened nations. # 

This is the stage at which society has arrived in our day, 
in a great part of Europe and of America.f But, even in 
the most advanced nations, the triumph of the rational 
portion of man's nature is incomplete. Our institutions, 
manners, desires, and aspirations still partake, to a great 
extent, of the characteristics of the propensities. Wars 
from motives of aggrandisement or ambition • unjust, and 
sometimes cruel, laws ; artificial privileges in favour of 
classes or individuals ; restrictions calculated to impede 
general prosperity for the advantage of a few ; inordinate 
love of wealth ; overweening ambition ; and many other 
inferior desires, still flourish in vigour among us. In such 
a state of society it is impossible that the virtuous and in- 
telligent alone should reach the highest social stations. 

In Great Britain that individual is fitted to be most 
successful in the career of wealth and its attendant advan- 
tages who possesses vigorous health, industrious habits, 
great selfishness, a powerful intellect, and just so much of 
the moral feelings as will serve for the profitable direction 
of his inferior powers. This combination of endowments 

* This discrimination of the stages in the development of society is 
now generally accepted as rational, and as warranted by facts. It 
regards man in the first stage as a hunter, in the second as a shep- 
herd, in the third as a farmer, and in the fourth as a manufacturer 
and merchant. — Ed., 1893. 

f We should now add in Australia, and in some parts of Asia 
and Africa.— Ed., 1893. 



104 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IX. 



renders self -aggrandisement the leading impulse to action. 
It provides sufficient intellect to attain the object in view, 
and morality enough to restrain every desire which would 
tend to defeat it. 

A person so constituted feels his faculties to be in har- 
mony with his external condition : he has no lofty aspira- 
tions after either goodness or enjoyment which the state of 
society does not permit him to realise ; he is satisfied to 
dedicate his undivided energies to the active business of 
life, and he is generally successful. He acquires wealth 
and distinction, stands high in social esteem, transmits 
respectability and abundance to his family, and dies in a 
good old age. _ 

Although his mind does not belong to the highest order ; 
yet, being in harmony with external circumstances, and 
little annoyed by the imperfections which exist around him, 
he is one of that class which, in the present social condition 
of Great Britain, is reasonably happy. We are in that 
stage of moral and intellectual progress which corresponds 
with the supremacy of the above-mentioned combination of 
faculties. 

In savage times, the rude athletic warrior was the chief 
of his tribe ; and he was also probably the happiest, 
because he possessed, in the greatest degree, the qualities 
necessary for success, and was deficient in all the feelings 
which, in his circumstances, could not obtain gratification. 
If he had also had Benevolence, Ideality, Veneration, and 
Conscientiousness largely developed, he would have been 
unhappy, by the aspirations after higher objects and con- 
ditions which they would have introduced into his mind. 

The same rule holds good in our own case. Those indi- 
viduals who have either too little of the selfish propensities 
or too much of the moral feelings are neither successful nor 
happy in the present state of British society. The former 
cannot successfully maintain their ground in the great 
struggle for property which is going on around them ; while 
the latter, although they may be able to keep their places 
in the competition for wealth, are constantly grieved by the 
misery and imperfection which they are compelled to wit- 
ness, but which they cannot remove. They have the 
habitual consciousness, also, that they are labouring for the 
mere means of enjoyment, without ever reaching enjoyment 
itself ; and that their lives are spent, as it were, in a vain 
show or a feverish dream. 



lect. ix.J THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 



105 



In these examples we observe that society has been 
slowly, but regularly, advancing towards elevating virtue 
and intelligence to public honour ; and we may reasonably 
hope that, in proportion to the increase of knowledge, 
especially of the law which renders moral and intellectual 
attainment indispensable to the highest enjoyment, will the 
tendency to do homage to virtue increase. The impedi- 
ments to a just reward of individual merit do not appear to 
be inherent in human nature, but contingent. 

There are, however, artificial impediments to the ac- 
complishment of this end, among which stand conspicuous 
hereditary titles of honour. 

The feudal kings of Europe early acquired, or assumed, 
the power of conferring titles of honour and dignity on men 
of distinguished qualities, as a mark of approbation of their 
conduct, and as a reward for their services to the State. 
As reason and morality urge no objections to a title of 
honour being conferred on a man who has done an impor- 
tant service to his country, the practice of ennobling indi- 
viduals was easily introduced. The favoured peer, however, 
naturally loved his offspring ; and without considering any 
consequences beyond his own gratification, he induced the 
king to add a right of succession, in favour of his children, 
to the dignities and privileges conferred on himself. 

We now know that if he himself had really been one of 
Nature's nobility, and if he had allied himself to a partner 
also possessing high qualities of brain and general consti- 
tution, and if the two had lived habitually in accordance 
with the natural laws, he would have transmitted his noble 
nature to his children ; and they, having the stamp of 
native dignity upon them, would have needed no patent from 
an earthly sovereign to maintain them in their father's rank. 

But this law of Nature being then unknown ; or the 
noble, perhans, having attained to distinction by one or 
two distinguished qualities merely, which were held in 
much esteem in his own day, and being still deficient in 
many high endowments ; or having from passion, love of 
wealth, ambition, or some other unworthy motive, married 
an inferior partner, he is conscious that he cannot rely on 
his children inheriting natural superiority, and he therefore 
desires, by artificial means, to preserve to them for ages the 
rank, wealth, titles, and power which he has acquired, and 
which Nature intended to be the rewards in every generation 
solely of superior endowments. 



105 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IX. 



The king grants a right of succession to the titles and 
dignity ; and Parliament authorises the father to place his 
estates under entail : by these means, his heirs, however 
profligate, imbecile, and unworthy of honour and distinction, 
are enabled to hold the highest rank in society, to exercise 
the privileges of hereditary legislators, and to receive the 
revenues of immense estates, which they may squander, or 
may devote to the most immoral of purposes. In these 
instances legislators have directly contradicted Nature. 

All this, you will perceive, is following out the principle 
that individual aggrandisement is the great object of each 
successive occupant of this world. These measures, how- 
ever, are not successful. They are productive often of 
misery, as every one knows who has observed the wretched 
condition of many nobles and heirs of entail, whose profli- 
gacy and imbecility render them unfit for their artificial 
station. 

In regard to society at large, this practice produces bane- 
ful effects. A false standard of consideration is erected ; 
the respect and admiration of the people are directed away 
from virtue and intelligence to physical grandeur and osten- 
tation ; and low objects of ambition are presented to the 
industrious classes of every grade. When extraordinary 
success in trade raises the banker or the merchant to great 
wealth, instead of devoting it, and the talents by means of 
which it was acquired, to the improvement and elevation of 
the class from which he has sprung, he becomes ashamed of 
his origin, he is fired with the ambition of being created a 
noble, and is generally iound wielding his whole energies, 
natural and acquired, in the ranks of the aristocracy against 
the people. 

If the distinctions instituted by Nature were left to 
operate, the effect would be that the people would, as a 
general rule, venerate in others, and would themselves desire, 
the qualities most estimable according to their own moral 
and intellectual perceptions. The standard of consideration 
would be rectified and raised in proportion to their advance 
in knowledge and wisdom ; and a great obstruction to im- 
provement, created by artificial and hereditary rank, would 
be removed. 

We are told that in the United States of America, where 
no distinct class of nobility exists, aristocratic feelings and 
all the pride of ancestry are at least as rampant as in Eng- 
land, in which the whole framework of society is constituted 



lect. ix.] THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 



107 



with reference to the ascendency of an ancient and powerful 
aristocracy ; and I see no reason to doubt the statement. 
Differences of rank were instituted when the Creator be- 
stowed the mental organs in different degrees on different 
men, and rendered them all improvable by education. 

It is natural and beneficial, therefore, to esteem and 
admire Nature's nobility — men greatly gifted with the 
highest qualities of our nature, and who have duly culti- 
vated and applied them. The Creator, also, in conferring 
on man the power to transmit, by means of his organi- 
sation, his qualities and condition to his offspring, has laid 
the foundation for our admiration of a long line of illus- 
trious ancestors. This direction of ambition may become 
a strong assistant to morality and reason, in inducing men 
to attend to the organic laws in their matrimonial alliances, 
and in their general conduct through life. 

At a time when war and rapine were the distinguishing 
occupations of nobles, men were proud of their descent from 
a great warrior — perhaps a border chieftain, who was, in fact, 
only a thief and a robber on a great scale. At present great 
self-congratulation is experienced by many individuals, be- 
cause they are descended from a family which received a 
patent of nobility five hundred years ago, and has since 
been maintained, by means of entails, in possession of great 
wealth, although during the intervening period their annals 
have commemorated as many profligates and imbeciles as 
wise and virtuous men. Many commoners, also, who have 
inherited sound brains and respectable characters from 
their own obscure but excellent ancestors, are ashamed of 
their humble birth, and proud of an alliance with a titled 
family, although feeble and immoral. 

But all this is the result of a misdirection of Veneration 
and Love of Approbation, which increasing knowledge will 
assuredly bring to a close. It indicates an infatuation of 
vanity, compared with which, wearing bones in the nose 
and tattooing the skin are harmless and respectable customs. 
If, in a country like Great Britain, a family have preserved 
property and high social consideration for successive cen- 
turies without a patent of nobility and without entails, its 
members must have possessed sound understandings and 
respectable morality ; and they are, therefore, really worthy 
of respect. The fact that there are several (I might say 
many) such families is a proof that the objects aimed at by 
charters of hereditary rank and entails may be better and 



108 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. ix. 



more effectually attained by obedience to the laws of organi- 
sation. 

It forms no argument against these views that in America 
there is as jealous a distinction of ranks, and as strong 
an admiration of ancestry, as in Great Britain ; because 
these feelings are admitted to be natural, while it is certain 
that the mass of American society is not better informed in 
regard to their proper direction than our own countrymen 
are. The founders of the American republic, however, were 
great and enlightened men, and they conferred a boon of 
the highest value on their posterity when, by prohibiting 
artificial hereditary ranks and titles, they withdrew the 
temptations to misdirected ambition which they inevitably 
present. In America the field is left clear for the operation 
of reason and morality, and we may hope that in time am- 
bition will take a sounder direction, corresponding with the 
increase of knowledge. In our own country the law not 
only obstructs reason, but adds a mighty impulse to our 
natural liability to err. 

We thus account for the fact that the best of men do not 
always attain the highest stations and the richest social re- 
wards, first, by the circumstance of society being progressive 
— of its being yet only in an early stage of its career, and of 
its honouring in every stage those qualities which it prizes 
most highly at the time, although they may be low in the 
scale of moral and intellectual excellence ; and secondly, by 
the impediments to a right adjustment of social honours 
presented by the institution of artificial hereditary dignities 
and entails. 

It is an interesting inquiry, Whether society is destined 
to remain for ever in its present or in some analogous state, 
or to advance to a more perfect condition of intelligence, 
morality, and happiness ; and if the latter be a reasonable 
expectation, by what means its improvement is likely to 
be accomplished. In considering these questions, I shall 
attempt to dissect and represent with some minuteness the 
principles which chiefly characterise our present social 
condition, and then compare them with our faculties, as 
revealed by mental physiology. We shall, by this means, 
discover to what class of faculties our existing institutions 
are most directly related. If they gratify our highest 
powers, we may regard ourselves as having approached the 
limits of improvement permitted by our nature ; if they do 
not gratify these, we may hope still to advance. 



LECT. IX.] THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 



109 



There are two views of human nature relating to this 
subject, both of which are plausible, and each of which may 
be supported by many facts and arguments. The first is, 
that man is merely a superior animal, destined to draw his 
chief enjoyments from a regulated activity of his animal 
nature, and adorned by such graces as are compatible with 
its supremacy. Life, for example, may be regarded as 
given to us that we may enjoy the pleasures of sense, of 
rearing a family, of accumulating wealth, of acquiring dis- 
tinction, and also of gratifying the intellect and imagina- 
tion by literature, science, and the arts. 

According to this view, self-interest, individual aggrandise- 
ment, and intellectual attainment would be the leading 
motives of all sensible men during life ; and the moral 
faculties would be used chiefly to control and direct these 
selfish propensities in seeking their gratifications, so as to 
prevent them from unduly injuring their neighbours, and 
from endangering their own prosperity. There would, in 
that case, be no leading moral object in life : our enjoy- 
ments would not necessarily depend on the happiness and 
prosperity of our fellow-men ; and the whole duty of the 
higher sentiments would be to watch over and direct the 
lower propensities, so as to prevent them from defeating 
their own aims. 

The other view is that man is essentially a rational and 
moral being, destined to draw his chief happiness from the 
pursuit of objects related directly to his moral and intel- 
lectual faculties ; the propensities acting merely as the 
servants of the sentiments, to maintain and assist them 
while pursuing their high and beneficent behests. 

History represents man, in past ages, as having been ever 
in the former condition, either openly pursuing the gratifi- 
cation of the propensities as the avowed and only object of 
life, or merely curbing them so far as to enable him to 
obtain higher satisfaction from them, but never directly 
pursuing moral ends or universal happiness as the chief 
object of his existence. This also is our present condition. 

Even in civilised communities, each individual who is 
not born to hereditary fortune must necessarily enter into 
an active competition for wealth, power, and distinction with 
all who move in his own sphere. Life is spent in one in- 
cessant struggle. We initiate our children into the system 
at the very dawn of their intelligence. We place them in 
classes at school, and offer them marks of merit and prize? 



110 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. IX. 



to stimulate their ambition ; and we estimate their attain- 
ments, not by the extent of useful knowledge which they 
have gained, but according to the place which they hold in 
relation to their fellows. It is proximity to the station of 
dux that is the grand distinction, and this implies the 
marked inferiority of all below the successful competitor. 

On entering into the business of life, the same system is 
pursued. The manufacturer taxes his invention and his 
powers of application to the utmost, that he may outstrip 
his neighbours in producing better and cheaper commodi- 
ties, and reaping a greater profit than they ; the trader 
keeps his shop open earlier and later, and promises greater 
bargains than his rival, that he may attract an increased 
number of customers. If a house is to be built or a steam- 
engine fitted up, a specification or a minute description of 
the object wanted is drawn up, copies are presented to a 
number of tradesmen ; they make offers to execute it for a 
certain sum, and the lowest offerer is preferred. 

The extent of difference in these offers is enormous. I 
was one of several public commissioners who received offers 
for building a bridge, the highest of which amounted to 
£21,036, and the lowest to £13,749. Of six offers which I 
received for building a house, the highest was £1,975, and 
the lowest £1,500. Differences equally great have been 
met with in tenders for furnishing machinery and works of 
various kinds. 

I have made inquiries to ascertain whence these differ- 
ences arise, and I find them accounted for by the following 
causes : — Sometimes an offer is made by a tradesman who 
knows himself to be insolvent — who, therefore, has nothing 
to lose, but who is aware that the state of his affairs is not 
publicly known, so that his credit is still good. As long as 
he can proceed in trade, he obtains the means of support- 
ing and educating his family, and every year passed in 
accomplishing this object is so much gained. He can pre- 
serve his trade only by obtaining a regular succession of 
employment, and he secures this by under-bidding every 
man who has a shilling of capital to lose. 

Bankruptcy is the inevitable end of this career, and the 
men who have property ultimately sustain the loss arising 
from this unjust and pernicious course of action; but it 
serves the purpose for a time, and this is all that the in- 
dividual who pursues it regards. 

Another and a more legitimate cause of low bidding is 



lect. ix.] THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. Ill 

the reverse of this. A trader has accumulated capital, and 
buys every article at the cheapest rate with ready money ; 
he is frugal, and spends little money in domestic expenses ; 
he is active and sharp in his habits and temper, and exacts 
a great deal of labour from his workmen in return for their 
wages. By these three circumstances combined, he is 
enabled to underbid every rival who is inferior to him in 
any one of them. 

Viewed on the principle that the object of life is self- 
aggrandisement, all this order of proceeding appears to be 
proper and profitable. But if you trace out the moral 
effects of it, they will be found extremely questionable. 

The tendency of the system is to throw an accumulating 
burden of mere labour on the industrious classes. I am 
told that in some of the great machine manufactories in the 
west of Scotland men labour for sixteen hours a day, stimu- 
lated by additions to their wages in proportion to the quan- 
tity of work which they produce. Masters who push trade 
on a great scale exact the most energetic and long- continued 
exertion from all the artisans whom they employ. In such 
circumstances man becomes a mere labouring animal. 

Yet this system pervades every department of practical 
life in these islands. If a farm be advertised to be let, 
tenants compete with each other in bidding high rents, 
which, when carried to excess, can be paid only by their 
converting themselves and their servants into labouring 
animals, bestowing on the land the last effort of their 
strength and skill, and resting satisfied with very little 
enjoyment from it in return. 

By the competition of individual interests, directed to the 
acquisition of property and the attainment of distinction, 
the practical members of society are not only powerfully 
stimulated to exertion, but are actually forced to submit to 
a most jading, laborious, and endless course of toil : in which 
neither time, nor opportunity, nor inclination is left for the 
cultivation and enjoyment of the higher powers of the mind. 

The order and institutions of society are framed in har- 
mony with this principle. The law prohibits men from 
using force and fraud in order to acquire property, but sets 
no limits to their employment of all other means. Our 
education and mode of transacting mercantile business sup- 
port • the same system of selfishness. It is an approved 
maxim that secrecy is the soul of trade ; and each manu- 
facturer and merchant pursues his speculations secretly, so 



112 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. IX. 

that his rivals may know as little as possible of the kind 
and quantity of goods which he is manufacturing, of the 
sources whence he draws his materials, or the channels by 
which he disposes of his products. 

The direct advantage of this system is that it confers a 
superiority on the man of acute and extensive observation 
and profound sagacity. He contrives to penetrate many of 
the secrets which are attempted, though not very success- 
fully, to be kept ; and he directs his own trade and manu- 
facture, not always according to the current in which his 
neighbours are floating, but rather according to the results 
which he foresees will take place from the course which 
they are following ; and then the days of their adversity 
become those of his prosperity. 

The general effect of the system, however, is that each 
trader stretches his capital, his credit, his skill, and his 
industry to produce the utmost possible quantity of goods, 
under the idea that the more he manufactures and sells the 
more profit he will reap. But as all his neighbours are 
animated by the same spirit, they manufacture as much as 
possible also ; and none of them knows certainly how much 
the other traders in his own line are producing, or how 
much of the commodity in which he deals the public will 
really want, pay for, and consume, within any specific time. 

The consequence is that a superfluity of goods is pro- 
duced, the market is glutted, prices fall ruinously low. All 
the manufacturers who have proceeded on credit, or who 
possess limited capital, become bankrupt, and the effects 
of their rash speculations fall on their creditors. They are, 
however, excluded from trade for a season — the other manu- 
facturers restrict their operations ; the operatives are thrown 
idle, or their wages are greatly reduced. The surplus com- 
modities are at length consumed, demand revives, prices 
rise, and the rush towards production again takes place ; 
and thus in all trades the pendulum oscillates, generation 
after generation, first towards prosperity, then to the equal 
balance, then towards adversity — back again to equality, 
and once more to prosperity. 

The ordinary observer perceives in this systeni what he 
considers to be the natural, the healthy, and the inevitable 
play of the constituent elements of human nature. He dis- 
covers many advantages attending it, and some evils ; but 
the latter he regards as inseparable from all that belongs to 
mortal man. 



lect. IX.] THE CONDITION OF SOCIETY. 113 

The competition of individual interests, for example, he 
assures us, keeps the human energies alive, and stimulates 
all to the highest exercise of their bodily and mental 
powers, whence abundance of every article that man needs 
is poured into the general treasury of civilised life, even to 
superfluity. 

We are all interested, he continues, in cheap production ; 
and although we apparently suffer by an excessive reduc- 
tion in the prices of our own commodities, the evil is 
transitory, and the ultimate effect is unmixed good, for all 
our neighbours are running the same career of over-produc- 
tion with ourselves. 

The evils attending the rise and fall of fortunes, the 
heart-breaking scenes of bankruptcy, and the occasional 
degradation of one family and the elevation of another, such 
men regard as storms in the moral, corresponding to those 
in the physical world ; which, although inconvenient to the 
individuals whom they overtake, are, on the whole, bene- 
ficial, by stirring and purifying the atmosphere : and, re- 
garding this life as a mere pilgrimage to a better, they view 
these incidental misfortunes as means of preparation for a 
higher sphere. 

This representation has so much of actual truth in it, and 
such infinite plausibility, that it is somewhat adventurous 
to question its soundness ; yet I am forced to do so, or to 
give up my best and brightest hope of human nature and its 
destinies. 

In all the systems which I have described, you will dis- 
cover no motives higher than those furnished by the pro- 
pensities regulated by justice, animating the competing 
members of society in their evolutions. The grand object 
of each is to gain as much power and distinction to himself 
as possible. He pursues^ this object without any direct 
regard to his neighbour's interest or welfare ; and no high 
moral or intellectual aim elevates, ennobles, or adorns his 
career. The first effect is that he dedicates his whole 
powers and energies to the production of the mere means of 
living, and he forces all his fellows to devote their lives to 
precisely the same pursuits. If leisure for moral and intel- 
lectual cultivation be necessary to the enjoyment of a 
rational, a moral, and a religious being, this is excluded ; 
for the labour is incessant during six days of the week, the 
effect of which is to benumb his faculties on the seventh. 

If the soft play of the affections, if the enjoyment of the 
i 



114 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. ix. 

splendid loveliness of nature and the beauties of art, if the 
expansion of the intellect in the pursuits of science, if 
refinement of manners, if strengthening and improving the 
tone and forms of our physical frames, and if the adoration, 
with minds full of knowledge and souls melting with love 
of our most bounteous Creator, constitute the real objects 
of human life in this world — the end for which we live ; and 
if the fulfilment of this end be the only rational idea of pre- 
paration for a higher state of existence, then the system of 
action which we have contemplated, when viewed as the leading 
object of human life, appears stale, barren, and unprofitable. 

It no doubt supports the activity of our minds and bodies, 
and surrounds us with innumerable temporal advantages, 
not to be lightly valued ; but its benefits end there. It- 
affords an example of the independence of the several 
natural laws. The system is one in which the mind and 
body are devoted for ten or twelve hours a day, on six days 
in the week, to the production of those useful and orna- 
mental articles which constitute wealth ; and in this object 
we are eminently successful. 

Yerilywe have our reward; for no nation in the world 
possesses so much wealth as Great Britain : none displays 
such vast property in the possession of individuals : none 
approaches her in the general splendour of living, and none 
in the multitude of inhabitants who live in idleness and 
luxury on the accumulated fruits of industry. 

But still, with all the dazzling advantages which Great 
Britain derives from her wealth, she is very far from being 
happy. Her large towns are overrun with pauperism and 
heathenism. The overwrought manufacturers are too 
frequently degraded by intemperance, licentiousness, and 
other forms of vice. 

In the classes distinguished by industry and morality, 
the keen competition for employment and profit imposes 
excessive labour and anxiety on nearly all ; while the higher 
classes are often the victims of idleness, vanity, ambition, 
vice, ennui, and a thousand attendant sufferings of body and 
mind. The pure, calm, dignified, and lasting felicity which 
our higher feelings pant for, and which reason whispers 
ought to be our aim, is seldom or never attained. 

The present condition of society, therefore, does not seem 
to be the most perfect which human nature is capable of 
reaching. Hitherto man has been progressive, and there is 
no reason to believe that he has yet reached the goal. 



115 



LECTURE X. 

Effects of the Selfish System. 

I proceed to point out some additional examples of the 
results of the competition of individual interests. 

Apparently the evils of the selfish system have the 
tendency to prolong and extend themselves indefinitely. 
We have seen, for example, that the institution of different 
employments is natural, springing from differences in native 
talent and inclination. This^ leads to the division of labour, 
by which every person has it in his power to confine his 
exertions to that species of art for which he has the greatest 
aptitude and liking ; while, by interchanging commodities, 
each may acquire the things necessary to his own enjoy- 
ment. 

But under the present system, this institution is attended 
with considerable disadvantages. Workmen are trained to 
perform the minutest portions of labour on a particular 
article, and to do nothing else; one man can point a pin, 
and do no more ; another can make the pin's head, but can 
finish no other part of it ; one can make the eye of a needle, 
but can neither fashion the body nor point it. In preparing 
steam-engines, there are different branches of trade and 
different workshops for the different parts of the machine. 
One person makes boilers, another casts the framework and 
heavy iron beams, a third makes cylinders, a fourth pistons, 
and so on ; and the person who furnishes steam-engines to 
the public merely goes to these different workshops, buys 
the different parts of the skeleton, and his own trade 
consists in fitting them together, and selling the engine 
entire. 

These arrangements produce commodities better and 
cheaper than it" one man made the whole needle or pin, or if 
one manufactory fabricated the whole steam-engine ; but 
when we view the system in its moral effects, there is an 
attendant disadvantage. It rears a large number of work- 
men who are ignorant of every practical art beyond the 
minute details of their own branch of industry, and who are 
altogether useless and helpless, except when combined 
under one employer. If not counteracted in its effects by 



116 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. X. 



education, it renders the workmen incapable of properly 
discharging their duties as parents or as members of society, 
by leaving them ignorant of everything except their narrow 
mechanical operations. 

It leaves them also exposed, by ignorance, to become the 
dupes of agitators and fanatics, and makes them dependent 
on the capitalist. They are mere implements of trade in the 
hands of men of more enlarged minds and more extensive 
property ; and as these men also compete keenly, talent 
against talent, and capital against capital, each of them is 
compelled to throw back a part of the burden on his 
artisans, demanding more labour, and giving less wages, to 
enable him to maintain his own position.* 

While the competition of individual interest continues to 
prevail in society, the field even of benevolence itself is 
limited. It becomes difficult to do good to one individual, 
or one class of individuals, without doing injury to others. 
Nothing, for example, can at first sight appear more 
meritorious and beneficial than the institution of charitable 
endowments. Yet objections to them have been stated, on 
very plausible grounds. Children do not, in general, become 
destitute, except in consequence of great infringement of 
one or more of the natural laws by their parents. 

Now, there is always a considerable number of meritorious 
persons, who stand in the middle line between high and low 
endowments, who, with great difficulty, are able to maintain 
themselves and their families in the station in which they 
were born, and who succeed in doing so only by submitting 
to incessant toil. Surely there must be some defect in the 
leading principle of our social institutions when a bene- 
volent provision for certain favoured persons really has the 
effect of obstructing the path and hindering the prosperity 
of the children of more meritorious individuals. 

There is more of benevolent arrangement in the tendency 
of barbarous tribes to wage furious wars with each other 
than at first sight appears. The Irish peasantry, in general, 
were till lately barbarous in their minds and habits, and, 
but for the presence of a large army of civilised men, who 
preserved the peace, they would have fought with and slain 
each other, It is questionable whether the miseries that 

* I confine the observations in the text to the case of mechanics 
who are uneducated. If they receive a good education, the more 
monotonous their employment is, they have the more spare energy for 
thought. 



LECT. x.] EFFECTS OF THE SELFISH SYSTEM. 117 

would have attended such a course of action would have 
exceeded those which are actually endured from starva- 
tion. 

The bane of Ireland has been that, owing to England 
keeping the peace, her population increased far more rapidly 
than her capital, morality, and knowledge. Where a nation 
is left to follow its own course, this does not occur. While 
it is ignorant and barbarous, it is pugnacious, reckless, 
licentious, and intemperate — qualities which naturally 
restrain or destroy population ; and it is only after morality 
and intelligence have been introduced that capital and in- 
dustry follow, and population naturally and beneficially in- 
creases. England prevented the Irish from fighting, but she 
did little to improve their moral, intellectual, and physical 
condition. The consequence has been, as the purest philan- 
thropist will confess, that a destroying angel who in one 
night should slay a million of human beings — men, women, 
and children — in that country, would probably occasion less 
suffering than would arise from any considerable deficiency 
in their potato crop. 

At this moment (June, 1835) the peasantry in the west of 
Ireland are suffering all the horrors of famine through 
failure of that portion of their food. # Although corn is 
abundant, and is daily exported to England, they are too poor 
to purchase it. The Irish peasantry, habitually on the brink 
of starvation, and exposed to the greatest destitution, stand 
at one end of the agricultural scale ; and the great landed 
proprietors of England, with revenues of £100,000 per 
annum, and rolling in every kind of luxury, occupy the 
other. The hand-loom weavers of Britain, earning five 
shillings a week by the labour of six days of fourteen hours 
each, are at the base of the manufacturing pyramid ; f while 
the Peels and Arkwrights, possessing millions of pounds, 
appear at the summit. 

There is something not agreeable to our moral sentiments, 
and not conformable to the brother-loving and wealth-de- 
spising precepts of Christianity, in a system of which these 
are the natural fruits, and according to which, even bene- 
volence cannot be manifested towards one human being 
without indirectly doing injury to another. 

* By a singular coincidence, starvation, from disease in the potato 
crop, is again afflicting unhappy Ireland, at the time when this edition 
is in the press (April, 1846). 

f It must be remembered that this was written in 1835. — Ed., 1893. 



118 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. x. 

It is worthy of remark that if the system of individual 
aggrandisement be the necessary, unalterable, and highest 
result of the human faculties as constituted by Nature, it 
altogether excludes the possibility of Christianity ever 
becoming practical in this world. The leading and distin- 
guishing moral precepts of Christianity are those which 
command us to do to others as we would wish that they 
should do unto us ; to love our neighbours as ourselves ; and 
not to permit our minds to become engrossed in the pursuit 
of wealth, or infatuated by the vanity and ambition of 
the world. 

But if a constant struggle for supremacy in wealth and 
station be unavoidable among men, it is clearly impossible 
for us to obey such precepts, which must therefore be as little 
adapted to our nature and condition as the command to love 
and protect poultry, but never to eat them, would be to that 
of the fox. Instead, therefore, of divines teaching Christian 
morality (if the system of competition of individual interests 
be the highest that our nature admits of), it would be 
wiser in them to follow the example of the political 
economists, and to suit their precepts to the human con- 
stitution. 

Political economists in general regard the existing forms 
and condition of society as the result of our natural faculties, 
and as destined to be the lot of man to the end of time. In 
perfect consistency with this view, they propose to provide 
for the increasing welfare of the race by exalting the aim of 
the selfish principles, and directing them more beneficially 
by extended knowledge. They would educate the operative 
classes, and thereby confer on them mental energy, fortitude, 
and a rational ambition — after which it might be expected 
that these classes would not consent to labour, like the lower 
animals, merely for the humblest subsistence; but would 
consider decent comforts, if not simple luxuries, essential to 
their enjoyment, and would demand wages adequate to the 
command of these as the recompense of their industry 
and skill. 

As long, however, as the system of individual aggrandise- 
ment is maintained, it will be the interest of the class im- 
mediately above the operatives, which subsists on the profits 
of their labour, to prevent the growth of improved notions 
and principles of action among them ; for the labourer is in 
the most profitable condition for his master's service when 
he possesses just intelligence and morality sufficient to enable 



LECT. xj" EFFECTS OF THE SELFISH SYSTEM. 



119 



him to discharge his duties faithfully, but so little as to feel 
neither the ambition nor the power of effectually improving 
his own circumstances. And accordingly, the mainten- 
ance of the labouring classes in this state of contentment 
and toil is the beau ideal of practical philosophy with 
many excellent individuals in the higher and middle ranks 
of life. 



120 



LECTUEE XL 

Man's Capacity foe Improvement. 

It is now time, however, to consider the question, Whether 
the human faculties, and their relations to external objects, 
admit of man ascending in the scale of morality, intelligence, 
and religion to that state in which the evils of individual 
competition shall be obviated, and full scope be afforded for 
the actual supremacy of the highest powers ? 

On contemplating man's endowments in a general point 
of view, nothing would appear more simple and easy than 
practically to realise the general and permanent supremacy 
of the moral powers. We have seen that aptitude for labour 
is conferred on him by the Creator ; and that, if enlightened 
in regard to his own constitution and the sources of his own 
welfare, he would desire to labour for his own gratification, 
even independently of the reward in the form of food, 
raiment, and physical abundance, which it is the means of 
procuring. 

Again, the earth and the external world generally are 
created with an admirable adaptation to his bodily and 
mental powers, so as to recompense him with great rewards 
for a very moderate extent of exertion in applying them to 
his own advantage. Further, man has been endowed with 
inventive and co-operative faculties, which confer on him a 
vast ingenuity, and which render him capable of impressing, 
not only the inferior animals, but fire, air, earth, and water, 
into his service as labourers. 

Finally, he has received a faculty of Benevolence, 
prompting him to love all sentient beings, and to delight in 
their happiness ; a faculty of Conscientiousness, desiring to 
see universal justice reign ; a faculty of Ideality, which 
aspires after universal perfection and loveliness ; with 
faculties of Veneration, Wonder, and Hope, leading him to 
desire communion with God, and to rejoice in the contem- 
plation of all that is pure, excellent, and beneficent. 

With such a constitution, and placed in such circumstances, 
the wonder is that he has wandered in error and misery 
so long. 

Tn addition to these high moral and intellectual endow- 



LECT. xi.J MAN'S CAPACITY FOR IMPROVEMENT. 121 

ments, man possesses animal propensities, which are blind 
and selfish impulses. They are prone to produce evil until 
they are directed and enlightened by his moral and intel- 
lectual powers. 

His ignorance of himself and of external nature, and his 
consequent inexperience of the happiness which he is 
capable of reaching, appear to have been the chief causes of 
his past errors ; and the following among other reasons 
authorise us to hope for happier scenes hereafter :— His 
propensities, although strong, are felt by all well-constituted 
minds to be inferior in dignity and authority to the moral 
and the intellectual faculties. There is, therefore, in man a 
natural longing for the realisation of a more perfect social 
condition than any hitherto exhibited, in which justice and 
benevolence shall prevail. 

Plato's " Eepublic " is the most ancient recorded example 
of this desire of a perfect social state. Josephus describes 
the sect of the Essenes, among the Jews, as aiming at the 
same object. The " Essenes," says he, " despise riches, and 
are so liberal as to excite our admiration. Nor can any be 
found amongst them who is more wealthy than the rest ; 
for it is a law with them that those who join their order 
should distribute their possessions among the members, the 
property of each being added to that of all the rest, as being 
all brethren." — " They reject pleasure as evil ; and they look 
upon temperance and a conquest over the passions as the 
greatest virtue." — ( Wars, ii., ch. 7.) 

In the days of the Apostles, an attempt was made by the 
Christians to realise these principles by possessing all things 
in common. The same end is aimed at also by the Society 
of Shakers and by the Harmonites of North America, and 
by the followers of Mr. Owen in Britain. Plato's Eepublic 
and Sir Thomas More's Utopia, which was a similar scheme, 
were purely speculative, and have never been tried. The 
word "Utopian," indeed, is usually applied to all schemes 
too perfect and beautiful to admit of being reduced to 
practice. 

The Essenes laboured in agriculture and in various trades, 
and seem to have maintained their principles in active 
operation for a considerable period of time. The Harmo- 
nites are stated to have been a colony of Moravians united 
under one or more religious leaders. In their own country 
they had, from infancy, been taught certain religious tenets, 
in which they were generally agreed; they had all been 



122 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XI. 



trained to industry in its various branches, and disciplined 
in practical morality ; and thus prepared, who emigrated 
with some little property, purchased a considerable territory 
in Indiana, which was then one of the back settlements of 
the United States, and proceeded to realise the scheme of 
common property and Christian brotherhood. 

This community existed for many years, enjoyed great 
prosperity, and became rich. Mr. Owen at last appeared, 
bought their property, and proceeded to try his own scheme. 
They then retired again into the wilderness, and re-com- 
menced their career. At that time they were about two 
thousand in number. Here the vice and misery which 
prevail in common society were in a great measure excluded; 
and though the external circumstances of the Harmonites 
were peculiarly favourable, their history shows what human 
nature is capable of accomplishing. 

The leading principle of Mr. Owen is, that human 
character is determined mainly by external circumstances ; 
and that natural dispositions, and even established habits, 
may be easily overcome. Accordingly, he invited all 
persons who approved of his scheme to settle at New 
Harmony ; but as those who acted on his invitation had 
been trained in the selfish system, and were, in many 
instances, mere ignorant adventurers, they failed to act in 
accordance with the dictates of the moral sentiments and 
the intellect, and Mr. Owen's benevolent scheme proved 
completely unsuccessful. 

The establishment at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire, set on 
foot ten years ago by the admirers of that gentleman, fell 
closely under my personal observation ; and there the same 
disregard of the principles of human nature and of the 
results of experience was exhibited. Without in the least 
benefiting the operatives, the scheme ruined its philanthropic 
projectors, most of whom are now either in premature 
graves or emigrants to distant lands; while every stone 
which they reared has been razed to the foundation. 

I proceed to state some of the reasons which render it 
probable, in spite of these failures, that the capacity of man 
for improvement is greater than [experience may, at first 
sight, lead us to suppose. 

In the first place, man is obviously progressive in the 
evolution of his mental powers. The moral and intellectual 
faculties bear a far higher sway in the social life of Europe 
in the present day than they did five hundred years ago ; 



lect. XI.] MAN'S CAPACITY FOB IMPROVEMENT. 123 

and the development of the brain also appears to^ improve 
with time, exercise, and the amelioration of social insti- 
tutions. Moreover, individuals are fitted to institute, 
maintain, and enjoy a highly moral and intellectual social 
condition in proportion to the predominance of their 
superior sentiments and intellectual powers. 

Further — As the firmest believers in man's capability of 
improvement are those persons who themselves possess 
a high moral development, they are inspired in this faith, 
not by a demon, but by Heaven ; for the moral sentiments 
are the God-like elements of our nature ; and the very fact 
that these ennobling expectations are entertained by men 
possessing the best moral affections affords an indication 
that Providence intends that they should be realised. In 
proportion, then, as a large development of the higher 
faculties becomes general, the conviction of the possibility 
of improvement, the desire for it, and the power of realising 
it, will increase.* 

Again — Man, as already mentioned, is clearly and un- 
deniably progressive in knowledge; and this single fact 
authorises us to rely with confidence on his future improve- 
ment. In proportion as he shall evolve a correct knowledge 
of the elements of external nature, and of his own constitu- 
tion, out of the chaos in which they have hitherto existed, 
will his means of acting wisely and advantageously for his 
own happiness be augmented. If we trace in history the 
periods of the direst sufferings of human nature, we shall 
find them uniformly to have been those of the most 
benighted ignorance. 

If the progress of knowledge be destined to augment 
virtue and enjoyment, our brightest days must yet be in 
reserve ; because knowledge is at this moment only dawn- 
ing even on civilised nations. It has been well observed 
that we who now live are only emerging out of the ignorance 
and barbarism of the dark ages; we have not yet fully 

* The failure of the disciples of Mr. Owen at Orbiston, in Lanark- 
shire, may be supposed to be a refutation of this remark ; but they 
followed the aspirations of their moral sentiments without consulting 
the dictates of enlightened intellect. They assembled a number of 
selfish and ignorant people, and expected that, by a few speeches and 
by living in a community, they could alter their mental condition, and 
render them in the highest degree disinterested and moral. This was 
irrational, and failure was the natural result ; but this does not show 
that wiser means might not have led to happier ends. 



124 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. XI. 



escaped. This is proved by the mass of uneducated persons 
everywhere existing, by the imperfect nature of the in- 
struction usually given, and by the vast multitude of 
prejudices which still prevail, even in the best informed 
classes of society. 

It is, in truth, an error to believe that even modern 
Europe is enlightened, in any reasonable meaning of the 
term. A few of her ablest men are comparatively well 
instructed when tried by the standards of other ages ; but 
the wisest of them have the most forcible conviction that 
the field of their knowledge of nature, physical and mental, 
when compared with the vast regions of territory still 
unexplored, is as a span to the whole terrestrial globe ; and 
as to the multitude of mankind, their ignorance is like the 
loftiest mountain in extent, and their knowledge as the 
most diminutive mole-hill. 

The external world is clearly constituted with the in- 
tention that man should exert his highest faculties, il- 
luminated by knowledge, and that his happiness should be 
by that means increased. Civilised man, with his numerous 
inventions and his admirable command over physical and 
animal nature, appears almost like a God, compared with 
the savages of New Holland and other helpless tribes 
bearing the human form without manifesting human 
intelligence. 

Another reason for believing in human capability of im- 
provement is that, imperfect as our scientific acquaintance 
with ourselves and with external nature at present is, we 
are able to trace many of our sufferings to causes which are 
removable by knowledge and by the practice of moral duty. 
The evils of sickness and premature death may, in general, 
and with the exception of accidents, be traced to feeble 
constitutions inherited from parents, or to direct disobedience 
of the organic laws in our own persons. If knowledge of 
the causes of health and disease were generally diffused, and 
if the sanctions of religion and of public opinion were 
directed towards enforcing attention to them, it is reasonable 
to believe that in every succeeding generation fewer parents 
would produce children with feeble constitutions, and fewer 
adults would cause their own deaths prematurely by 
ignorant infringement of these laws. 

Poverty, and the consequent want of the necessaries and 
enjoyments of life, is another vast source of human suffering. 
But who that contemplates the fruitfulness of the earth 



lect. xi.l MAN'S CAPACITY FOR IMPROVEMENT. 125 

and the productiveness ^ of human labour and skill can 
doubt that, if a higher-minded and more considerate \ opula- 
tion could be reared, who should act according to the 
dictates of an enlightened understanding and a sound 
practical morality, under wise social arrangements, this 
source of suffering might also be dried up, or very greatly 
diminished ? 

Vicissitude and uncertainty of condition also afflict 
thousands who are placed above the reach of actual want of 
food and raiment. Yet how much of these evils may be 
traced to the dark mysteriousness in which trade is generally 
conducted ! In consequence of that, each manufacturer is 
often in secret ruining both himself and his neighbour by 
over-production, without any of them being aware that he 
is the source of his own and his neighbour's calamities. 
And how much evil may be ascribed to the grasping and 
gambling spirit, which prompts so many persons to engage 
in wild speculations, which a sound education in political 
economy might prevent ! 

The last reason which I assign for believing in the 
capability of man for improvement is, that he can scarcely 
advance a step in knowledge and morality without inducing 
a palpable amelioration of his condition. If you will trace 
the history of our countrymen through their various states, 
of savages, barbarians — chivalrous professors of love, war, 
and plunder — and of civilised citizens of the world, you will 
find the aggregate enjoyment of the people increased with 
every extension of knowledge and virtue. 

For all these reasons, let us hope that improvement, 
although not boundless, yet so extensive that its limits 
cannot be denned, lies within the reach of man ; and 
let us proceed to consider some of the means by which it 
may be attained. 

The first step towards realising this object is to produce 
a general conviction of its possibility, which I have en- 
deavoured to accomplish. The next is to communicate to 
each individual a clear perception of the advantages which 
would accrue to himself from such improvements, and a 
firm conviction of the impossibility of individuals in general 
ever attaining to the full enjoyment and satisfaction of their 
highest and best powers, except by means of social in- 
stitutions founded on the harmonious action of all their 
faculties. 

In support of this last proposition, I solicit your attention 



126 MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. xi. 



for a brief space to our helpless condition as individuals. 
In social and civilised life, not one of us could subsist in 
comfort for a day without the aid and society of our fellow- 
men.* This position will perhaps be disputed by few ; but 
the idea is general that if we only acquire property enough 
we may completely realise the happy condition so delight- 
fully sketched by Moore, when he invokes felicity to a 
friend in the following words : — 

" Peace be around thee wherever thou rov'st ; 
May life be for thee one summer day ; 
And all that thou wishest, and all that thou lov'st, 
Come smiling around thy sunny way." 

Wealth cannot purchase such happiness as this. 

Is any one convinced that human life is rendered un- 
necessarily laborious by our present habits of competition, 
and does he desire to limit his hours of labour, and long 
ardently to enjoy more ample opportunities for exercising 
his moral and intellectual faculties ? — he soon discovers that 
while his neighbours in general continue to seek their chief 
happiness in the pursuit of wealth or the gratification of 
ambition, he can accomplish little towards realising his 
moral desires. He must keep his shop open as long as they 
do; he must labour in his manufactory up to their full 
standard of time ; or if he be a member of a profession, he 
must devote as many hours to business as they ; otherwise 
he will be distanced in the race, and will lose both his 
means of subsistence and his station in society. 

So true is this representation tha*fc, in my own day, many 
of the men who without fortune have embarked in public 
life— that is, who have taken the lead in public affairs, and 
have devoted a large portion of their time to the business of 
the community — have ruined themselves and their families. 
Their competitors in trade, manufactures, or professional 
pursuits were dedicating their whole energies to their 
private duties, while they were dividing their attention 
between them and the public service ; and they were, 
in consequence, ruined in their individual fortunes, and 

* Alexander Selkirk lived in solitude for four years on the un- 
inhabited island of Juan Fernandez in comfort, and even with enjoy- 
ment, after he had become accustomed to his situation ; but he had a 
fine climate, a fertile soil, and unbounded range for action. A human 
being left without aid in a civilised community would be far more 
helpless and miserable. 



lect. XI.] MAN'S CAPACITY FOB IMPROVEMENT. 127 

sank into obscurity and want. Yet it is certain that the 
business of the State or of a particular _ town or city 
should receive a due portion of attention from the 
inhabitants. 

This dependence of individuals on the condition of the 
social circle in which they live extends through all the 
ramifications of existence. Does any individual entertain 
higher notions of moral and religious duty than are current 
in his own rank and age ? — he will find, when he attempts 
to carry them into practice, that he becomes an object of 
remark to all, and of dislike and hostility to many. 

Does another perceive the dangers to health and comfort 
in narrow lanes, small sleeping apartments, and ill-ventilated 
rooms and churches, and desire to have them removed 1 — 
he can accomplish absolutely nothing until he has convinced 
a multitude of his fellow citizens of the reasonableness and 
advantage of his projected improvements, and induced 
them to co-operate in carrying them into effect. 

But perhaps the strongest proof of the close connection 
between public welfare and private interest is afforded by 
the effects of any great political or commercial convulsion. 
In 1825-6 we saw extensive failures among bankers, 
merchants, and manufacturers ; and how universal was the 
individual suffering throughout all classes ! Labourers 
could find no employment, and the shopkeepers who 
depended on them had few customers, and of these, many 
were unable to pay. The great manufacturers who supplied 
these classes with clothing and articles for domestic use 
were idle, the house proprietor suffered for want of solvent 
tenants, and the landed proprietor found a dull and dis- 
advantageous market for his produce. 

Contrast this picture with the condition of the country 
when the great branches of manufacturing industry are 
prosperous, and how different the happiness of individuals ! 
Thus it appears, that even under the present system of the 
pursuit of individual interest, the real welfare of each 
individual is much more closely connected with that of his 
neighbours than is generally recognised. This proves that 
a fundamental element of individual advantage is public 
prosperity. 

According to my humble conviction, therefore, the very 
first lesson relative to our social duties which should be 
given to the young is to open their understandings to the 
great fact that the precept of Christianity which commands 



12S 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XI. 



us to love pur neighbours as ourselves js actually written 
in our individual and social constitutions, and must be 
practically realised before individuals can become truly 
prosperous and happy. 

That precept has been generally interpreted to mean that 
we should do specific acts of kindness to the men who live 
locally in our neighbourhood, or who are connected with us 
by ties of intimacy or kindred ; but, although this is un- 
questionably one, and a very important, application of it, 
the principle of the precept goes much farther. It enjoins 
us to arrange our social institutions and our whole practical 
conduct in such a manner as to render all simultaneously, 
and as nearly as may be equally, happy ; and apparently 
our nature has been constituted to admit of this being 
done with unspeakable advantage to all whenever 
we shall thoroughly understand our constitution, its 
wants and capabilities. At present this principle is im- 
perfectly understood, and certainly it is not generally 
acted on. 

A few years ago, we used to hear the maxim often re- 
peated that private persons had nothing to do with public 
affairs ; that their business was to mind their shops, their 
manufactories, their professions, and their families, and 
to leave public matters to public men. The evil con- 
sequences of following this rule in past ages may be read in 
the wide aberrations of many of our laws and institutions, 
and of our social condition, from the standards of reason 
and general utility. If you will peruse the pages of history, 
you will find the caprices of a single Sovereign often leading 
to wars which spread devastation and misery among 
millions of people. These could not have been waged if the 
millions of persons on whom the calamities fell had con- 
sidered the public interest to be inseparably connected with 
their own, and if they had had courage to exercise an 
enlightened control over the actions of their rulers. 

If we trace narrowly the great causes why our rulers 
have been permitted to waste the public resources and 
incur the national debt, which now forms so great an im- 
pediment to public improvement, we shall find that too 
often the individuals of the nation were calculating the 
private gain which hostilities would yield to them. War 
created a demand for farm produce to maintain fleets and 
armies, for cloth to clothe them, and for iron to arm them, 
and so forth ; and men shut their eyes to the fact that it 



OtoT. XI.] MAN'S CAPACITY FOU IMPROVEMENT. 129 

was destroying the national resources, and that they them- 
selves would, in the end, be forced to pay for all. 

One of the most certain marks of a truly enlightened 
mind is the power of comprehending the dependence of our 
individual welfare on public prosperity. I do not mean, of 
course, that each of us should become a political reformer, 
or a conservative, or a brawler about town politics and 
police regulations, as if these constituted our chief business, 
to the neglect of our private duties. This would augment, 
instead of diminishing, the evils of our social condition. 
What I wish to enforce is the conviction that, in the 
general case, our individual enjoyments are inseparably 
connected with those of the society in which we move ; 
and that it is both our interest and our duty to study 
attentively the nature, objects, and practical results of our 
social institutions, and to devote to them all the time and 
attention that may be necessary to bring them into accord- 
ance with the dictates of our higher powers. 

The prevalence of these views would lead to numerous 
and important advantages. We should learn to regard 
public measures in their real relationship to general utility, 
and not through the distorting medium of our private 
interests and partialities. We should proscribe class 
interests as public nuisances ; and believe in the incal- 
culable power which society possesses to improve its con- 
dition whenever it chooses to act in the right direction. 
We should feel much more disposed than we are at present 
to promote, with our moral influence, the ascendency of all 
measures calculated to lead to public good, relying on their 
benefiting ourselves in our social capacity. 

If I be correct in the opinion that the happiness of each 
individual is inseparably connected with that of the society 
in which he lives, and that the law that we must love our 
neighbour as ourselves really means, in its extensive sense, 
that individual enjoyment can arise only from improved 
social habits and institutions, then I shall not be thought 
guilty of extravagance when I remark that in times past 
this view has rarely, to any practical end, been pressed on 
the attention of society. Within the last fifty or sixty 
years political economy has been discussed on philosophical 
principles ; but the leading aim of the economists has been to 
demonstrate the most effectual means of increasing wealth. 

The very title of the first valuable work on the subject in 
this country is "The Wealth of Nations," by Dr. Adam 
J 



130 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XI. 



Smith. The principles which he expounded, it is true, are, 
in many respects, coincident with those which I am now 
advocating. No one can value his labours, and those of 
his successors, such as Eicardo, M'Culloch, and their 
followers, more highly than I do. Yet it is unquestionable 
that the great aim of all these writers has been to clear 
away the rubbish that impeded the play of our selfish 
faculties, and to teach the advantage of repealing ail laws 
that impede a man in following his own bent in search of 
its own happiness in its own way, restrained only by the 
obligation that he shall not directly injure or obstruct the 
prosperity of his neighbour. 

In the infancy of civilisation, the exposition of the 
natural laws by which it is created and diffused is most valu- 
able, and these writers are worthy of all consideration as 
being useful in their day. But society must advance in its 
course. It has augmented its wealth, while many persons 
doubt whether the increase of happiness has, in all ranks, 
now kept pace with that of its riches. What seems now to 
be wanted is the application of principles in harmony with 
our whole nature, physical, animal, moral, and intellectual, 
calculated to lead to the gratification of all our powers. 

The gigantic efforts of Great Britain in war afford an ex- 
ample of the prodigious power, in the form of violence, which 
we are capable of wielding ; and if our forefathers had dedi- 
cated to the physical and mental improvement of the 
people the same ardour of mind, and the same amount of 
treasure, which they squandered in battles between the 
years 1700 and 1815, w T hat a different result would at this 
day have crowned their labours ! If they had bestowed 
honours on the benefactors of the race as they have done on 
its destroyers, how different would have been the direction 
of ambition ! 

The next requisite for improving our social condition is 
the command of time for the discharge of our social duties. 
One day in the week is set apart for teaching and prac- 
tising our religious duties ; but in that day little instruction 
is communicated by our public and authorised teachers 
touching the affairs of this world, and the laws by which 
the happiness of our social state may be best promoted. 
The other six days of the week are devoted to the advance- 
ment of our individual interests in the pursuit of wealth, 
or, as the Scripture designates it, to the collection of " the 
meat which perisheth." 



lect. xl] MAN'S CAPACITY FOR IMPROVEMENT. 131 



In the existing arrangements of society, our social duties 
do not appear to be generally recognised as incumbent on 
us. There are few seminaries for making us acquainted 
with them, and no time is allowed for the practice of them. 
Those unofficial individuals who discharge public duties 
must either sacrifice to them the time which their com- 
petitors are devoting to their private interests, or must 
overtask their minds and bodies by labouring when Nature 
demands repose. 

With all deference to existing opinions, I should humbly 
propose that a specific portion of time should be set apart 
for teaching in public assemblies, and for discharging 
practically our social duties, and that all private business 
should then be suspended. If half a day in the week were 
devoted to this purpose, some of the following consequences 
might be expected to ensue. 

In the first place, the great importance of social insti- 
tutions and habits to individual happiness would be 
brought home to all. It would be half a day dedicated to 
the consideration of the means by which we might practi- 
cally love our neighbours as ourselves : a public recognition 
of the principle as one capable of being carried into effect 
would, in itself, bend many minds towards realising it. 

Secondly, such an arrangement would enable, and also 
excite, the people at large to turn their attention seriously 
to moral and social considerations, in which their true 
interests are so deeply involved, instead of considering it 
meritorious and advantageous to neglect them; and it 
would tend to remove a dense mass of ignorance and 
prejudice which olfers a powerful obstacle to all im- 
provement. 

' Thirdly, the dedication of a specific portion of time to 
our social duties would leave leisure for truly virtuous and 
enlightened men to transact public business, without 
exposing themselves to be ruined by their competitors in 
the race of private interest. Under the present system, 
the selfish are enriching themselves, while the patriotic are 
impoverishing their families by discharging their public 
duties. 

Perhaps the notion will present itself to many persons 
that if the industrious classes were congregated to receive 
instruction in this manner, the result would be the forma- 
tion of innumerable clubs and debating societies, in which 
vivacious but ignorant men would imbue the weaker 
J 2 



MORAL PHILOSOPHIC. 



[lect. xi. 



brethren with discontent, and lead them into mischievous 
errors. This would probably happen if a sudden adoption 
of the plan took place without previous preparation. At 
present, ignorance of sound social principles is so prevalent, 
that such unions might be abused ; but a young and rising 
generation may be prepared, by training and education, for 
comprehending and performing their social duties, and then 
leisure for the practice of them would lead only to good. 

After the people at large are enlightened, and are 
thoroughly imbued with the love of justice and of the happi- 
ness of their neighbours, another social duty will be to carry 
into practice, as far as possible and by every moral means, 
the equalisation of the enjoyment of all— not by pulling the 
fortunate and accomplished clown, but by elevating the 
condition of the inferior orders. With this view, all privi- 
leges and artificial ranks which obstruct the general welfare 
should be abolished : not violently, but gradually ; and, if 
possible, by inducing their possessors to give them up, as 
injurious to the public and not beneficial to themselves. 

The next social duty which I mention relates to the 
maintenance of the poor. Much diversity of opinion pre- 
vails on the causes of poverty and the remedies for it ; as 
also on the best means of managing the poor. Many 
political economists have taught that there should be no 
legal provision for the indigent, because the knowledge of 
such a resource induces the indolent and vicious to relax 
their own efforts in order to earn the means of subsistence, 
leads them to throw themselves unblushingly, and as a 
matter of right, on the public bounty, and thus operates as 
a direct stimulus to poverty. 

Again, some political economists, of whom Dr. Chalmers 
is the chief, regard all compulsory assessments for the poor 
as injurious to society, and maintain that private benevo- 
lence, if fairly left to itself, is quite adequate to provide for 
them. Other men, equally wise and experienced in the 
world, are altogether disbelievers in this alleged power of 
the principle of benevolence, and argue that the only effect 
of relying on it would be to permit the avaricious to escape 
from all contribution, and to throw the burden of main- 
taining the poor entirely on the benevolent, who, in general, 
are overwhelmed with other demands on their bounty. 

Scientific knowledge of human nature, and of the influence 
of external circumstances on happiness, cannot be general 
when such widely different doctrines regarding a question 



lect. xi.] MAN'S CAPACITY FOR IMPROVEMENT. 133 



so momentous are supported by men of equal profundity 
and learning. 

The view of it which is presented by the new philosophy 
is the following : — 

The causes of that degree of poverty which amounts to 
destitution are great defects in the body or in the mind 
of the individuals who fall into this condition, or in both. 
The lame, the deaf, and the blind may be poor through 
bodily defects, and should be comfortably supported by 
the more fortunate members of society. Their numbers 
are not great, in proportion to those of well-constituted 
men, and the expense of their maintenance would not be 
felt as a severe tax if they were the only burdens on the 
benevolence of the community. The idiotic belong to the 
same class. 

All that society can accomplish in regard to such persons 
is to provide comfortably for those who exist, and to use 
means to limit their increase in future generations. This 
can be accomplished best by instructing the community 
at large in the organic laws, and presenting to them every 
intelligible motive to obey them. 

An accomplished manager of the poor of a parish, ac- 
cording to the present system, is a man who resists to the 
very last extremity every application for charity ; and who, 
when resistance is no longer possible, obtains the greatest 
quantity of food and raiment for the smallest amount of 
money. Economy in contracts is the grand object ; and 
those managers are covered with glory who are able to 
reduce the assessment on the parish one-half per cent. 

Without meaning at all to depreciate the advantages of 
economy, I remark that this mode of management reminds 
me of the manner in which an old relative of my own 
coped with the rushes which grew abundantly in one of 
his fields. He employed women, whom he hired at so 
many pence a day, to pull them up ; and if the wages of 
the women fell from lOd. to 8d. or 6d. a day, he thought 
that he had managed the rushes to great advantage that 
year. But it so happened that the rushes, like the poor, 
constantly re-appeared, and the labour of pulling them up 
never came to an end. 

At last this excellent person died, and his son succeeded 
to the farm. The son had received a scientific educa- 
tion, and had heard of the chemical qualities of soil, of 
the various metals and minerals which are usually found 



134 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XI. 



incorporated with it, and of the effect of these and other 
circumstances on vegetation. He thus discovered that 
stagnant water is the parent of rushes ; and when he suc- 
ceeded to the farm he cut a deep drain through a high 
bank, obtained declivity sufficient to cause water to flow, 
and then constructed drains through the field in every 
direction. By this means he dried the soil; the rushes 
disappeared, and have never since been seen there ; the 
labour of pulling them up is saved, and the money which 
it cost is devoted to further improvements. 

So long as society shall neglect the causes of poverty, 
and shall omit to remove them, and so long as they shall 
confine their main efforts to making cheap contracts for 
supporting the poor, so long will they have a . constant 
succession of indigent to maintain. Nay, there is a great 
tendency in their proceedings to foster the growth of the 
very poverty which so grievously distresses them. I have 
said that the children in the charity-workhouses have 
generally low temperaments and inferior brains ; and that 
these are the great parents of poverty. To prevent these 
children from rearing an inferior race, also bordering on 
pauperism, and from becoming paupers themselves in the 
decline of life, it would be necessary to improve, by every 
possible means, their defective organisation.. This can be 
done only by supplying them with nutritious diet, and by 
paying the utmost attention to their physical and mental 
training. 

By the present system, they are feci on the poorest fare, 
and their training is very imperfect. They look dull, inert, 
heavy, and lymphatic, and are not fortified so much as they 
might be against the imperfections of their natural con- 
stitutions. In point of fact, in feeding pauper children 
with the most moderate quantity of the coarsest and 
cheapest food, means are actually taken to perpetuate the 
evil of pauperism ; for bad feeding in childhood weakens the 
body and the mind, and consequently diminishes the power 
of the individuals to provide for themselves. Attention, 
therefore, ought to be devoted, not merely to the support 
of existing paupers, but also to the means of preventing 
another crop from springing up in the next generation. 
Our present system may be compared to that which the 
farmer would have pursued if he had watered the field 
after pulling up the rushes, in order to assist Nature in 
accomplishing a new growth. 



135 



LECTUEE XII. 

Pauperism and Crime. 

Another cause of pauperism is the habit of indulging in 
intoxicating -liquors. This practice undermines the health 
of the whole nervous system, through which it operates 
most injuriously on the mind. The intoxicating fluid, by 
its influence on the nerves of the stomach, stimulates the 
brain, and excites the organs of sensibility, emotion, and 
thought, for the time, into pleasing and vivacious action. 

Hence the drunkard enjoys a momentary happiness ; but 
when the stimulus is withdrawn, the tone of the system 
sinks as far below the healthy state as during intoxication 
it was raised above it. He then experiences an internal 
void — a painful prostration of strength and vivacity, and 
a strong craving for a renewed supply of alcohol to recruit 
his exhausted vigour. During intoxication, the brain, from 
over excitement, is incapable of healthy action, while in the 
intervals between different debauches it is so exhausted 
and enfeebled that it is equally unfit to execute its 
functions. The habitual drunkard thus sinks into the 
condition of an imbecile, and may become a burden on 
the industrious portion of the community for his main- 
tenance^ 

Various causes lead to these unfortunate habits. One 
is hereditary pre-disposition. If the parents, or one of 
them, have been habitually addicted to this vice, its 
consequences affect their physical constitution, and they 

*The phenomena attending the different stages of intoxication 
appear to indicate that the brain is affected also directly in the 
following manner, although evidence is still wanting to render this 
view certain. Intoxicating liquors accelerate the action of the heart, 
and cause an increased flow of blood to the head. The first effect of 
this is to stimulate all the organs into greater activity, and to produce 
feelings of vivacity and pleasure. The blood circulates most freely 
in the largest mental organs, because they have the largest blood- 
vessels. As intoxication proceeds, the smaller organs — those of the 
intellectual powers — are first overcharged with blood, and their func- 
tions become impaired ; next, the organs of the moral sentiments are 
gorged ; and lastly, those of the propensities ; so that the drunkard 
extinguishes first his humanity, then his animal nature ? and at last 
becomes a mere breathing, unconscious mass. 



136 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xn. 



transmit an abnormal condition of the organs to their 
children. This doctrine has been ridiculed, as if we taught 
that children are born drunk. They are no more born drunk 
than they are born in a passion ; but they are engendered 
with conditions of brain that tend ultimately to produce in 
them a love of intoxicating fluids. 

Again, a tendency to drunkenness appears to be caused 
by excessive labour with low diet. The nervous energy is 
exhausted through the medium of the muscles, and the 
stimulus of alcohol is felt to be extremely grateful in 
restoring sensations of life, vigour, and enjoyment. This 
cause may be removed by moderating the extent of labour, 
and by improving the quantity or the quality of the food. 
If alcohol were withheld, and a nourishing diet were 
supplied to such men, they would after a few weeks be sur- 
prised at the pleasurable feelings which they would 
experience from this better means of supplying the waste of 
their systems. 

An additional cause of intoxication is found in ignorance. 
When an individual enjoys high health and a tolerably well- 
developed brain, he feels a craving for enjoyment, a desire 
to be happy, and to be surrounded by happy friends. If he 
be uneducated and ignorant, his faculties desire a scene in 
which they may vent their vivacity, and objects on which 
they may expend their energies ; and he discovers that 
intoxicating liquors will give him a vivid experience for the 
time of the pleasures of which he is in quest. For the sake 
of this artificial stimulus, the bottle is then resorted to, 
instead of the natural excitements of the mind, calculated 
at once to render us happy and to improve our external 
condition. 

A more extensive and scientific education is the most 
valuable remedy for these evils. We have seen mental 
cultivation banish drunkenness from the classes holding 
rank and respectability in society, and the same effect may 
be expected to follow from the extension of education 
downwards. 

The last cause of pauperism is a great convulsion which 
occurs every few years in our manufacturing and commercial 
systems, and which, by deranging trade, deprives many 
industrious individuals of employment, casts them on 
charity for subsistence, breaks down their self-respect and 
their feelings of independence, and ultimately degrades theni 
into helpless pauperism. 



LECT. XII.] PA UPERISM AND CRIME. 



137 



If, then, I am correct in the opinion that the chief causes 
of pauperism are— first, a low temperament and imperfect 
development of brain, attended with a corresponding mental 
imbecility, although not so great as to amount to idiocy ; 
secondly, hereditary or acquired habits of intoxication, which 
impair the mind by lowering the tone of the whole nervous 
system ; thirdly, want of mental cultivation ; and fourthly, 
depression arising from commercial disasters — the question 
whether the poor should be provided for by society is 
easily solved. To leave them destitute would not remove 
any one of these causes, but would increase them. To allow 
our unhappy brethren, who thus appear to be as frequently 
the victims of evil influences over which they have little or 
no control as of their own misconduct, to perish, or to 
linger out a miserable and vicious existence, would be not 
only a direct infringement of the dictates of Benevolence 
and Conscientiousness, but an outrage on Veneration (seeing 
that God has commanded us to assist and reclaim them) ; 
moreover, it would tend also to the injury of our own 
interests. 

The fact that the world is arranged by the Creator on the 
principle of dispensing happiness to the community in pro- 
portion to their obedience to the moral law is here again 
beautifully exemplified. By neglecting the poor, the 
number of individuals possessing deficient brains and 
temperaments is increased, the number of drunkards is in- 
creased, and the number of the ignorant is increased. As 
society carries these wretched beings habitually in its bosom ; 
as they prowl about our houses, haunt our streets, and 
frequent our highways, and as we cannot get rid of them, 
it follows that we must suffer in our property and in our 
feelings until we do our duty towards them. 

Nay, we must suffer in our health also; for their wretched- 
ness is often the parent of epidemic diseases, which do not 
confine their ravages to them, but sweep away indiscrimi- 
nately the good and the selfish, the indolent and the hard- 
hearted, who have allowed the exciting causes to grow up 
into magnitude beside them. 

On the other hand, by applying rigorous measures, not 
only to maintain the poor, but also to remove the causes of 
pauperism, these evils may be mitigated, if not entirely 
removed. If a practical knowledge of the organic laws were 
once generally diffused through society, and a sound moral, 
religious, and intellectual education w r ere added, I cannot 



138 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY, 



[lect. in. 



doubt _ that the causes of pauperism would be perceptibly 
diminished. 

Mental science conveys a strong conviction to the mind 
that precepts and knowledge are not sufficient by themselves 
to ensure correct conduct. The higher faculties of the mind 
must be brought into a state of sufficient vigour to be able 
practically to resist, not only the internal solicitations of the 
animal propensities, but the temptations presented by the 
external world, before sound precepts can be realised in 
practice. 

Now, a favourable state of the organs, on the condition of 
which mental strength or feebleness in this world depends, 
is an indispensable requisite towards the possession of this 
vigour ; and as this fact has not hitherto been known — at 
least, has not. been attended to — it seems to me probable 
that society does not know a tithe of its own resources for 
mitigating the evils which afflict it. 

The temperance societies are extremely useful in this 
respect. The substitution of comfortable food for intoxi- 
cating beverages has a direct tendency to benefit the 
whole nervous system, and to increase the vigour of the 
higher powers of the mind. Therefore, society at large 
should bend its best energies, directed by sound know- 
ledge, towards the accomplishment of this end. 

Holding it, then, to be clearly both the duty and the 
interest of society to provide for the poor, the next question 
is, How should this be done : by legal assessment or by 
voluntary contributions ? The willingness of any individual 
to bestow charity depends not exclusively on the quantity 
of wealth which he possesses, but likewise on the strength 
of the benevolent principles in relation to the selfish in his 
mind. Now, we discover by observation, that the. benevo- 
lent and the selfish feelings differ very widely in different 
individuals ; and experience supports the conclusion which 
we draw from this fact, that their dispositions to act charit- 
ably are as widely different. 

Not only so, but as the leading principle of our present 
social system is the pursuit of self-interest, it may be stated 
as a general rule (allowance being always made for in- 
dividual exceptions) that those in whom the^ selfish feelings, 
with intellect and prudence, predominate, will possess most 
wealth ; and yet this very combination of faculties will ren- 
der them least willing tobestow. Their wealth and their bene- 
volence will generally be in the inverse ratio of each other. 



lect. xil] PAUPERISM AND CRIME. 139 



On another point I am disposed to cany our social duties 
further than is generally done. I regard the money applied 
to the maintenance of the indigent as, at present, to a great 
extent wasted, in consequence of no efficient measures being 
adopted by society to check pauperism at its root. 

If I am correct in ascribing it to a low temperament, 
imperfect mental development, habits of intoxication, igno- 
rance, and commercial fluctuations, efficient means must be 
used to remove these causes before it can either cease or be 
effectually diminished ; and as the removal of them would, 
in the end, be the best policy for both the public and the 
poor, I am humbly of opinion that the community, if they 
were alive to their own interests, as well as to their duty, 
would supply the pecuniary means for laying the axe to the 
root of the tree, and, by a rational education, and by the 
elevation of the physical and mental condition of the lower 
classes of society, would bring pauperism to a close, or, at 
all events, diminish its present gigantic and increasing 
dimensions.* 

Here the regret always occurs that our senseless wars 
should have wasted so much capital that we must provide 
twenty-seven millions of pounds sterling annually to pay the 
interest of it :f a sum which, but for these wars, might have 
been applied to the moral advancement of society, and 
have carried a thousand blessings in its train. If our moral 
sentiments were once rendered as active as our propensities 
have been, and I fear still are, we should devote our public 
assessments to beneficial social objects, render them liberal 
in proportion to the magnitude of the work to be accom- 
plished, and pay them with a hearty good- will, because they 
would all return to ourselves in social blessings. 

I forbear suggesting any particular plan by which the 
objects now detailed may be accomplished ; because no 
plan can become practical until the public mind be in- 
structed in the principles, and convinced of the truth, of the 
doctrines which I am now teaching : and whenever they 
shall be so convinced,, they will devise plans for themselves 
with infinitely greater facility and success than we can 

* It is gratifying to observe that the suggestion in the text has, to 
some extent, been recently carried into effect by the Poor- Law 
Commissioners of England. See their admirable report " On the 
Training of Pauper Children,' ' 1844. 

f The interest on the National Debt, funded and unfunded, was. 
in 1892, £25,200,000. 



140 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. xii. 



pretend to do who live only in the dawn of the brighter 
day. 

The next social duty to which I advert relates to the 
treatment of criminals, or of those individuals who commit 
offences against the persons or property of the members of 
the community. The present practice is to leave every man 
to the freedom of his own will until he shall have committed 
an often ce : in other words, until he shall have seriously 
injured his neighbour ; and then to employ, at the public 
expense, officers of justice to detect him, witnesses to prove 
his crime, a jury to convict him, judges to condemn him, 
jailers to imprison him, or executioners to put him to death, 
according as the law shall have decreed. It will be observed 
that in all this proceeding there is no inquiry into the causes 
which led to the crime, into the remedies for crime, or into 
the effects of the treatment on the offender or on society ; 
yet every one of these points should be clearly ascertained 
before we can judge correctly of our social duties in regard 
to the treatment of criminals. 

As to the cause of crime, there is a strange inconsistency 
between our theological and our legal standards on the pro- 
clivity of the human mind to evil. The articles of our 
Church tsach us that the human heart is deceitful above all 
things and desperately wicked ; while legally, every man is 
regarded as so completely a moral agent that he can 
command his will and his actions ; and hence, that when a 
clear law which his intellect can comprehend is laid down 
for his guidance, he is a just and proper subject for punish- 
ment if he infringe it. 

The premises and the conclusion in this last view are con- 
sistent with each other; and if this were a correct description 
of human nature, there would be no gainsaying the propriety 
of the practice. We should still, however, find a difficulty 
in accounting for our want of success in putting an end 
to crime ; for if these principles of criminal legislation and 
punitive infliction be sound, it appears a strange anomaly 
that crime has everywhere, and in every age, abounded 
most where punishment — especially severe punishment— has 
been most extensively administered, and that it has abated 
in all countries where penal infliction has become mild and 
merciful. 

There is, however, an error in this view of human nature. 
It appears incredible that in a well-governed country like 
this, where detection and punishment are almost certain to 



lect. Xii.] PAUPERISM AND CPIME. 



141 



follow crime, any man should infringe the law, if he were 
not urged by impulses which obtained the mastery, for the 
time, over conscience and reason. We need not waste time, 
however, in speculating on this subject, but may come at 
once to facts. 

As mentioned* in a former lecture, the faculties may be 
divided into three great classes : those of the Animal 
Propensities, the Moral Sentiments, and the Intellectual 
Faculties. 

In some individuals the animal propensities bear the as- 
cendency over the moral and the intellectual faculties. Such 
men feel the impulses of passion very strongly, and are in- 
ternally urged by vigorous selfish desires, which vehemently 
crave for gratification ; while, on the other hand, they 
possess only feeble glimpses of moral obligation, and a 
glimmering of intellectual perception. 

The class of minds which forms the greatest contrast to this 
one is that in which the moral and the intellectual faculties 
decidedly predominate over the animal propensities. In- 
dividuals thus constituted have naturally strong feelings of 
moral and religious obligation and vigorous intellectual 
perceptions, while the solicitations of their animal passions 
are relatively moderate. 

The third class is intermediate between these two. They 
have the propensities, the moral sentiments, and the intel- 
lectual faculties nearly in a state of equilibrium. They 
have strong passions, but they have also strong powers of 
moral and religious emotion and of intellectual perception. 

Fortunately, the lowest class of minds is not numerous. 
The highest class appears to me to abound extensively \ 
while the middle class is also numerous. The middle and 
the highest class are at least as twenty to one, in comparison 
with the lowest. 

I am aware that many of my present audience may 
regard these not as facts, but as dangerous fancies and 
groundless speculations. To such persons I can only say 
that if they will take the proper means to discover whether 
these are truths in Nature or not, they will find it as im- 
possible to doubt of their reality as of the existence of the 
sun at noon-day ; and there is no rule of philosophy by 
which facts should be disregarded merely because they 
are unknown to those who have never taken the trouble to 
observe them. 

I respectfully solicit you to consider that the brain is not 



142 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xri. 



of human creation, but is the workmanship of God, and 
that it is a most pernicious error to regard its functions and 
its influence on the mental dispositions with indifference. 
I beg leave here to assume that the views now presented 
are founded in Nature, and to apply them in elucidation of 
our social duties in the treatment of criminals. 

In the case of persons of the lowest class, we are presented 
with beings whose tendencies to crime are naturally very 
strong, and whose powers of moral guidance and restraint 
are very feeble. We permit such individuals to move at 
large in a state of society in which intoxicating liquors, 
calculated to excite aud gratify their animal propensities, 
are abundant and easily obtained, and in which property, 
the great means of procuring pleasure, is everywhere exposed 
to their appropriation; we proclaim the law that if they 
invade this property, or if, in the ecstasies of their drunken 
excitement, they commit violence on each other, or on the 
other members of the community, they shall be imprisoned, 
banished, or hanged, according to the degree of their offence ; 
and in that condition of things we leave them to the free 
action of their own faculties and the influence of external 
circumstances. 

It appears a self-evident proposition that if such men are 
actuated by strong animal passions there must be an an- 
tagonist power, of some kind or other, to restrain and guide 
them, before they can be led to virtue or withheld from vice. 
Now, the well-constituted members of society, judging from 
their own minds, assume that these individuals possess 
moral feelings and intellectual capacities adequate to this 
object, if they choose to apply them. On the other hand, 
the conviction forced on me by observation of the lives and 
histories of great and habitual criminals is that they do not 
enjoy these controlling powers in an adequate degree to 
enable them successfully to resist the temptations presented 
by their passions and by their external circumstances. 

The question now presents itself, What mode of treatment 
does this view of the natural dispositions of criminals 
suggest ? Every one is capable of understanding that if the 
optic nerve be too feeble to allow of perfect vision, or if the 
auditory nerve be too small to permit complete hearing, the 
persons thus afflicted should not be placed in situations in 
which perfect vision and hearing are necessary to enable 
them to avoid doing evil. Nay, it will also be granted with- 
out much difficulty that deficiency in the sense of Tune 



LECT. XII.] 



PAUPERISM AND CRIME. 



143 



may be the cause why some individuals have no perception 
of melody. But most people immediately demur when we 
assure them that some human beings exist who, in conse- 
quence of deficiency in the moral faculties, are as blind to 
the dictates of benevolence and justice as the others are 
deaf to melody ; and that it is equally cruel to prescribe to 
them, as the law does, the practice of moral duties, and 
then to punish them severely because they fail. Yet the 
conclusion that this treatment is cruel is inevitable, if the 
premises be sound. 

What, then, should be done with this class of beings ?— for 
I am speaking only of a class, small in comparison with the 
great mass of society. The established mode of treating 
them by inflicting punishment has not been successful. 
Those who object to the new views constantly forget that 
the old method has been an eminent failure — that is to 
say, that crime has gone on increasing in amount, in pro- 
portion as punishment has been abundantly administered ; 
and they shut their eyes to the conclusion which experience 
lias established, that, be the causes of crime what they may, 
punishment has not yet been successful in removing them, 
and that therefore it cannot, on any grounds of reason, be 
maintained to be of itself sufficient for this purpose. 

The new philosophy dictates that the idea of punishment, 
considered as mere retribution, should be discarded. Punish- 
ment in this sense really means vengeance ; and the desire 
for inflicting it arises from an erroneous conception of the 
structure and condition of the criminal mind, and from the 
activity of our own passions, which are excited by the in- 
juries inflicted on us by the actions and outrages of this 
class of persons. Our duty is to withdraw external tempta- 
tion, and to supply, by a physical restraint, that deficiency 
of moral control which is the great imperfection of their 
minds. 

We should treat them as moral patients. They should 
be placed in penitentiaries, and prevented from abusing 
their faculties, yet be humanely treated, and permitted to 
enjoy comfort and as much liberty as they could sustain, 
without injuring themselves or their fellow-men. They 
should be taught morality, knowledge, and religion, so far 
as their faculties enable them to learn ; and they should be 
trained to industry. 

This mode of treatment would render their lives happier 
than they could ever be, were their persons left at large in 



144 



Moral Philosophy. [iect. xil 



society ; and it would make theni also useful. I consider 
the restoration of this class of persons to the possession of 
a moral self-control as nearly hopeless : they resemble those 
who are blind and deaf from irremediable effects in the 
organs of sight and hearing. If, however, by long restraint 
and moral training and instruction they should ever become 
capable of self-guidance, they should be viewed as patients 
who have recovered, and be liberated, on the understanding 
that if they should relapse into immoral habits, they 
should be restored to their places in the asylum. # 

It has been frequently urged that this doctrine abolishes 
responsibility ; but I am at a loss to comprehend the exact 
import of this objection. The distinction between right 
and wrong does not depend on the freedom of the human 
will, but on the constitution of our faculties. Every action 
is morally right which gratifies all our faculties, enlightened 
and acting harmoniously ; and every action is wrong which 
outrages or offends them. Hence, if we see a furious mad- 
man or a mischievous idiot (whom no one supposes to be 
free agents) burning a house or murdering a child, we are 
compelled, by our whole moral faculties, to condemn such 
actions as wrong, and to arrest the perpetrator of them in 
his wild career. 

Now, the case of the class of offenders which we have 
been discussing is precisely analogous. Like the madman, 
they act under the influence of uncontrollable passions 
existing, in their case, in consequence of the natural pre- 
dominance of certain faculties, and in his from ascendency 
of the passions. Society absolves idiots and the insane 
from punishment ; and we only plead that this class of 
unfortunate beings should be as extensive in the eye of the 
law as it is in Nature; and that by erroneous legal defi- 
nitions of insanity, and by legal fictions, the really insane 
should not be treated as criminals. The actions of the 
morally insane, whom we wish to include in it, are without 
hesitation condemned ; and no one doubts that we should 
put a stop to their outrages, although we do not regard the 
individuals as guilty. 

* I have conversed on the subject of the irreclaimable dispositions 
of this class of criminals with intelligent and humane superintendents 
of prisons in Great Britain and in the TJuited States of America, and 
they have expressed a decided conviction that there are prisoners 
vrhom no punishment will recall to virtue, but who, when liberated, 
constantly re -commence their career of crime. 



LECT. XII.] 



PAUPERISM AND CRIME. 



145 



The important question, therefore, is, By what means 
may society be most effectually protected against their 
injurious assaults on property and life? The disciples of 
the old school answer that this may be best done by holding 
them responsible for their actions, and by punishing them ; 
but in doing so, they turn a deaf ear to the lessons of expe- 
rience, which proclaim only the failure of this treatment in 
times past. Without consideration for the real welfare 
either of society or of the offenders, they indulge their own 
animal resentment by delivering over the victims of cere- 
bral disease to jailers and executioners, to be punished for 
committing actions which their defective mental consti- 
tution rendered it impossible for them to avoid. There is 
no wonder that crime does not diminish under such a form 
of treatment. 

The disciples of the new philosophy, on the other hand, 
answer the question by appealing to experience ; by looking 
at facts ; by consulting reason ; by regarding the advantage 
at once of the criminal and of society. They say that 
physical and moral restraint are the only effectual remedies 
for this great evil ; that these should be unhesitatingly 
applied — not vindictively, but in affection and humanity ; 
and that then the offences of this class of criminals will be 
diminished in number. 



K 



146 



LECTURE XIII. 

The Treatment of Criminals. 

The second class of minds to which I direct your attention 
is that in which the animal propensities, the moral senti- 
ments, and the intellectual faculties are all active, and 
nearly in equilibrium. In individuals thus constituted the 
propensities give rise to vivid manifestations of the animal 
feelings, -but the moral sentiments and the intellect produce 
also strong moral emotions and intellectual perceptions. In 
practical conduct, such persons are, to a remarkable extent, 
the creatures of external circumstances. 

If one of them, born of profligate < parents, be trained to 
idleness, intoxication, and crime, his whole lower nature 
will thus from infancy be called into vivid action, while his 
moral sentiments will receive no proportionate cultivation. 
His intellectual faculties, denied all rational and useful in- 
struction, will be employed only in serving and assisting 
the propensities ; they will be sharpened to perpetrate 
crime and to elude punishment. Such an individual will 
be prepared to become an habitual criminal, and he will be 
the more dangerous to society on account of the consider- 
able degree in which he possesses moral and intellectual 
faculties. These will give him an extent of intelligence 
and plausibility which will enable him only the more 
successfully to deceive, or probably to obtain access to 
places of trust, in which he may commit the more extensive 
peculations. 

If, on the other hand, an individual thus constituted be 
placed from infancy in the bosom of a moral, intelligent, 
and religious family, who shall present few or no tempta- 
tions to his propensities, but many powerful and agree- 
able excitements to his higher faculties ; if he shall have 
passed the period of youth under this influence, and in 
early manhood shall have been ushered into society with 
all the advantages of a respectable position and a high 
character, and shall have been received and cherished by the 
virtuous as one of themselves : then Lis moral and in- 
tellectual faculties may assume and maintain the ascendency 
during life. 



LECT. xiil] THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 



147 



If, again, an individual of this class have been religiously- 
educated, but in early youth have left home, and been 
much thrown upon the world — that is to say, left to asso- 
ciate with persons of indifferent characters and dispositions 
— he may gradually deteriorate. In the dawn of manhood 
and the blaze of his passions, his conduct may be not a 
little profligate and disreputable. But as he advances in 
life, the energy of the animal propensities may begin to 
decay ; or they may be exhausted by excessive indulgence^ 
or he may suffer afflictions in his health, in his family, or in 
his worldly circumstances. Under the influence of these 
combined causes and circumstances, his moral sentiments 
may recover their activity, his early religious impressions 
may resume their ascendency, and he may come forth g, 
repentant sinner and a reformed man. 

In religion, this process is generally called regeneration. 
According to my observation, the men who are converted, 
and reformed from habitual profligacy, and who continue, 
afterwards, permanently moral and religious characters, 
possess this combination. They become profligate at first, 
from the energetic action of their animal propensities ; and 
when subsequently they become respectable Christians, 
they act under the control of their moral and intellectual 
powers. 

I am aware that in making this statement I am treading 
on delicate ground ; because many sincere and excellent 
persons believe that these results flow from the influence 
of the Holy Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit operates in 
regenerating sinners altogether independently of the laws 
of organisation : in short, that the influence is supernatural. 
I do not at all dispute the power of God to operate inde- 
pendently of the natural laws : the very idea of His being 
omnipotent implies power to do according to His pleasure, 
in all circumstances and times • but it appears to me that, 
the age of miracles being past, it does not now please God 
to operate on the human mind either independently of, or 
in contradiction to, the laws of organisation instituted by 
Himself. 

This reduces the question, not to one respecting God's 
power — for we all grant this to be boundless — but to one of 
fact — whether it pleases Him actually to manifest His 
power over the human mind, always in harmony with, Qr 
sometimes independently of, and at other times in contra- 
diction to, the laws of organisation \ and this fact, like 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XIII. 



any other, must be determined by experience and obser- 
vation. 

I humbly report the results of my own observations ; and 
say that, although I have seen a number of men of renewed 
lives, I have never met with one possessing a mind of the 
lowest character who continued moral amidst the ordinary 
temptations of the world. Such men occasionally appear 
moral for a time ; but they do not remain steadfast in 
the paths of virtue when temptation is presented. 

On the contrary, I have uniformly seen regenerated men 
who maintained their position possess a mind in which the 
animal propensities, the moral sentiments and the intellect 
were all considerably developed ; so that in these instances 
the influence of religion seemed to me to operate completely 
in harmony with the organic laws. That influence cast 
the balance in favour of the higher sentiments, gave them 
the permanent ascendency, and hence produced the re- 
generated character. 

These observations can be met, not by argument, but by 
counter facts. If any one will show me cases in which men 
possessing the defective brains of idiots, or the diseased 
brains of insanity, have, by any religious influences, been 
converted into rational and pious Christians, he will com- 
pletely overthrow my conclusions. Such facts would 
show unequivocally that it does please God, in some 
instances, to operate on the mind, even in our day, inde- 
pendently of, or in contradiction to, the laws of organisation. 
Nay, if examples shall be produced of men possessing the 
worst brains becoming apparently, by the influence of 
religion, excellent practical Christians amidst external 
temptations, I shall yield the point. But no such examples 
have yet been exhibited. 

Perhaps some of you may be of opinion that this is a 
discussion which belongs more to theology than to moral 
philosophy. In reply, I remark that the question regarding 
what is the scriptural doctrine touching regeneration be- 
longs to theology, and I avoid all discussion of it ; but the 
question, does any religious influence act independently of, 
or in contradiction to, the laws of organisation, is one which 
belongs to philosophy. Indeed, it teaches a fundamental 
point in moral philosophy ; because, if the laws of Nature, 
on which alone philosophy rests, are liable, in the case of 
mind, to be traversed by influences of any kind operating 
independently of, or in contradiction to them, moral 



{Act. xm,] THE TREATMENT OP CRIMINALS. 119 



philosophy can have no foundation. There may be a 
theology comprising a code of moral duty, founded on 
Scripture ; but assuredly there can be no philosophy of 
morals founded on Nature. 

In like manner, there can be no natural religion : because 
all our scientific observations and conclusions will be con- 
stantly liable to be falsified, and rendered worse than use- 
less, by a supernatural influence producing results entirely 
independent of, or in contradiction to, the causes which are 
presented in Nature for the guidance of our understandings. 
This question, therefore, is not only important, but, as I 
have said, fundamental in a course of moral philosophy; 
and I could not consistently avoid introducing it. 

To return to the subject from which we have digressed, I 
observe that in the case of this class of minds in which the 
propensities, the moral sentiments, and the intellectual 
faculties are nearly in equilibrium, society enjoys a great 
power in producing good or evil. If, by neglecting educa- 
tion, by encouraging the use of intoxicating liquors, by per- 
mitting commercial convulsions attended with extreme 
destitution, society allows individuals possessing this com- 
bination of mental faculties to be thrown back, as it were, 
on their animal propensities, it may expect to rear a 
continual succession of criminals. 

If, on the other hand, by a thorough and all-pervading 
training and education, moral, religious, and intellectual ; 
by well-regulated social institutions providing steady 
employment, with adequate remuneration ; and also by 
affording opportunities for innocent recreation, this class of 
men shall be led to seek their chief enjoyments from their 
moral and intellectual faculties, and to restrain their animal 
propensities, they may be effectually saved from vice. 

It is from this class that the great body of criminals 
arises ; and as their conduct is determined, to a great 
extent, by their external circumstances, the only means of 
preventing them from becoming criminals is to fortify 
their higher faculties by training and education, and to 
remove external temptation by introducing improvements, 
as far as possible, into our social habits and institutions. 

I wish to press on your attention the dereliction of social 
duty which the better-constituted members of society 
commit while they neglect to use the light which Provi- 
dence presents to their eyes. If official persons place men 
in whom the animal faculties predominate, or in whom the 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xiii. 



balance between them and the moral powers only hangs in 
equilibrium, in external circumstances in which temptations 
are presented to the inferior faculties stronger than they 
are able to resist, a great portion of the guilt of their 
'offences lies with those who thus expose them to trial ; and 
although the criminal law does not recognise this as guilt, 
'the natural law clearly does so. 

It may appear hard that punishment should have been 
inflicted for so many generations, while men did not possess 
-any adequate means of discriminating natural dispositions, 
so as to be able to avoid them. This difficulty presents 
itself in regard to all the natural laws ; and the only 
answer that can be offered is that it has pleased Providence 
to constitute man a progressive being, and to subject him 
to a rigid discipline in his progress to knowledge. Our 
ancestors suffered and died under the ravages of the small- 
pox until they discovered vaccination. 

The next question to be considered is, How should men, 
having minds of this middle class, be treated, after they 
have yielded to temjitation, infringed the law, and been con- 
victed of crime? The established method is, to confine 
them before trial in crowded prisons, in utter idleness, and 
in the society of criminals like themselves ; and after trial 
and condemnation, to continue them in the same society, 
with the addition of labour ; or to hang them. 
; In no aspect of European and Christian society are there 
more striking marks of a still lingering barbarism than in 
the treatment of criminals. In almost no other institutions 
of society are there more glaring indications of an utter 
want of the philosophy of mind than in the prisons of 
Great Britain.^ But let us descend to particulars. 

We have seen that men of the middle class of moral 
'development (and most criminals belong to it) are led into 
crime in consequence of the ascendency, for the time, of 
their animal propensities ; but that, nevertheless, they 
possess to a considerable extent also moral sentiments and 
intellect. In treating them as criminals we may have 
various objects in view. 

'* The text was written in 1835 — 36, and an improvement has since 
taken place in the management of British prisons. A Prison Act has 
been passed, appointing Boards for the direction of prisons in Scot- 
land (1841). The improvements of prisons in both sections of the 
island steadily proceeds; but still the true philosophy of prison 
discipline is little understood (1846). 



LECT. xiii.] THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 



151 



First, our object may be revenge, or the desire to inflict 
suffering on them because they have made society suffer. 
This is the feeling of savages, and of all rude and naturally 
cruel minds ; and if we avow this as our principle of action, 
and carry it consistently into effect, we should employ 
instruments of torture, and put our criminals to a cruel and 
lingering death. I humbly think, however, that as we 
profess to be humane, we ought entirely to discard the 
principle of vengeance from our treatment as unchristian, 
unphilosophical, and inexpedient. 

Secondly, our object may be, by inflicting suffering on 
criminals, to deter other men from offending. This is the 
general and popular notion of the great end of punishment, 
and when applied to men of the middle class of faculties, it 
is not without foundation. Wherever the moral and re- 
flecting faculties possess considerable development, example 
does produce some effect : and the higher the moral and 
intellectual faculties rise in power, the more completely 
efficacious does it become. But the error is very great of 
supposing that all men are constituted with very nice moral 
sensibilities. While I consider it certain that the fear of 
punishment does operate beneficially on the waverers, I 
regard its influence as much more limited than is generally 
believed. 

The conclusion at which I arrive on this point is, that the 
condition of convicted criminals should be such as should 
be felt to be a very serious abridgment of the enjoyments of 
moral and industrious men ; but I do not consider it advis- 
able that one pang of suffering should be added to their lot 
for the sake of deterring others, if that pang be not calcu- 
lated to prove beneficial to themselves. Indeed, it is a 
questionable point in morals whether society is at all 
warranted in inflicting on one of its members suffering 
which can do him no good, solely with a view to benefit 
itself by deterring others at his expense from committing 
crime. It appears to me that this is unjust, and therefore 
inadmissible, and it is still less defensible, because it is 
unnecessary. 

Thirdly, our object in criminal legislation may be at once 
•to protect society by example and to reform the offenders 
themselves. This appears to me to be the only real and 
legitimate object of criminal law in a Christian country, and 
the question arises, How may it best be accomplished % 

A condemned criminal is necessarily an individual who 



152 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. XIII, 



lias been convicted of abusing his animal propensities, and 
thereby of inflicting evil on society. He has proved by his 
conduct that his moral and intellectual powers do not 
possess sufficient energy, in all circumstances, to restrain 
his propensities. Restraint, therefore, must be supplied by 
external means ; in other words, he must, both for his own 
sake and for that of society, be taken possession of and pre- 
vented from doing mischief ; he must be confined. 

Now, this first step of discipline itself affords a strong 
inducement to waverers to avoid crime : because, to the 
idle and dissolute, the lovers of ease and pleasure, confine- 
ment is a sore evil — one which they dread more than a 
severe, but shorter, infliction of pain. This measure is 
recommended, therefore, by three important considerations 
. — that it serves to protect society, to reform the criminal, 
and to deter other men from offending. 

The next question is, How should the criminal be treated 
under confinement % The moment w T e understand his 
mental constitution and condition, the answer becomes 
obvious. Our object is to abate the activity of his animal 
propensities, and to increase the energy of his moral and 
intellectual faculties. The first step in allaying the activity 
of the propensities is to withdraw every object and com- 
munication that tends to excite them. 

The proper treatment is to separate them as much as 
possible from each other ; and, while they are in one another's 
society, to prevent them, by the most vigilant superin- 
tendence, from communicating immoral ideas and impres- 
sions to each other's minds. 

In the next place, they should be all regularly employed, 
because nothing tends more directly to subdue the in- 
ordinate activity of the animal propensities than labour. 
It occupies the mind, and physiologically it drains off, by 
the muscles, the nervous energy, which, in the case of 
criminals, is expended by their strong propensities. Many 
criminals are so deficient in intellect that they are not 
capable of engaging in ingenious employments ; but my 
proposition is, that wherever they do enjoy intellectual 
talent, the more effectually it is drawn out, cultivated, and 
applied to useful purposes, the more will their powers of 
self- guidance and control be increased.* 

* Many of these ideas have now been adopted in our treatment of 
criminals. Great improvements in the organisation and management 



LECT. xiii.] THE TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 153 



Supposing the quiescence of the animal propensities to be 
secured by restraint and by labour, the next object ob- 
viously is to impart vigour , to the moral and intellectual 
faculties of criminals, so that they may be rendered capable 
of mingling with society at a later period without relapsing 
into crime. The moral and intellectual faculties can be 
cultivated only by exercising them on their natural objects 
and in their legitimate fields. This can be done only by 
greatly increasing the number of higher minds that hold 
communion with them ; by rendering their labour the 
means of purchasing the stores which they consume ; and 
by encouraging them to read, and to exercise all their best 
powers in every practicable manner. 

By this treatment the offender would be restored to 
society with his inferior feelings tamed, his higher powers 
invigorated, his understanding enlightened, and his whole 
mind and body trained to industrious habits. If this should 
not afford society a more effectual protection against his 
future crimes, and be more in consonance with the dictates 
of Christianity than our present treatment, I stand con- 
demned as a vain theorist ; but if it would have these 
blessed effects, I humbly entreat of you to assist me in 
subduing that spirit of ignorance and dogmatism which 
represents these views as dangerous to religion and injurious 
to society.* 5 

of prisons were begun by the Acts of 1835 and 1839. Prison inspec- 
tors were appointed, also a surveyor- general of prisons. In 1842 
Pentonville Prison was built on the " solitary" system. In 1855 an 
Act made the system compulsory in the case of male prisoners. The 
same Act contained a code of rules for all prisons. In 1878 the con- 
trol of all prisons was transferred from local authorities to the 
Government, and a body of Royal Commissioners on Prisons was 
appointed for each of the three kingdoms. While the administration 
has improved, the cost has greatly diminished— from £495,000 in 
1876-77 to £320,000 in 1889-90. The number of prisoners has also 
diminished by 12'5per cent, in fifteen years, while the population has 
increased by 25 per cent, in the same time. These facts are a remark- 
able proof of the wisdom and forethought of the author, and show 
how much he was in advance of his time. — Ed , 1893. 

* The prisons in the United States of America are conducted in 
a manner greatly superior to those of Great Britain and Ireland, but 
even they admit of improvement. I shall add some remarks on them 
to the next Lecture, 



154 



LECTUEE XIV. 

Punishment or Reformation? 

I proceed to consider the duty of the highest class of 
minds in regard to criminal legislation and prison discipline. 
This class has received from Providence ample moral and 
intellectual powers, with as much of the lower elements of 
our nature as is necessary for their well-being in their 
present sphere of existence, but not so much as to hurry 
them into crime. Such individuals have great moral 
power committed to them by the Creator, and we may pre- 
sume that He will hold them responsible for the use which 
they make of it. 

Hitherto, this class, chiefly through want of knowledge, 
has fallen far short of their duty in the treatment of 
criminals. As revenge is disavowed by Christianity, and 
condemned by the moral law of Nature, we should exclude 
it entirely as a principle in our treatment of criminals ; 
nevertheless, it may be detected mingling, more or less, with 
many of our criminal regulations. 

Under the existing system of criminal legislation, every 
man is held responsible for his actions who, in the phrase- 
ology of lawyers, can distinguish between right and wrong ; 
and this responsibility consists in being subjected to a 
certain extent of punishment — in other words, mental and 
physical suffering — proportioned to the magnitude of the 
offence which he has committed. 

An individual may be born with so strong an instinct of 
acquisitiveness and such weak moral and intellectual 
powers, that, like a fox on a common, he may be actually 
impelled by his nature to appropriate objects suited to 
gratify his propensity, regardless of the preferable rights of 
others. He may be grossly ignorant ; he may be under- 
going the pangs of starvation ; or he may be surrounded 
by the temptations presented by intoxicating liquors and a 
social atmosphere of ignorance and profligacy ; still the law 
takes no account of such things. 

It inquires only whether he possesses so much intellect 
as to know that the law has declared stealing, killing, fire- 



lect. xiv.] PUNISHMENT OR REFORM A TION 1 155 

raising, fraud, deception, and hundreds of other' acts, to 
be wrong. If he is not purely idiotic or raving mad, he 
may be in any of the unfortunate conditions now men- 
tioned, and yet know this fact. And this is enough for the 
law. It, then, by a fiction of its own, and often in opposi- 
tion to the most glaring indications, assumes him to be a 
free and responsible being, and deals out its punishment, 
or, in other words, its vengeance, upon him for having dis- 
regarded its dictates. 

If any class deserves punishment, I should be disposed to 
inflict it on the higher class— on the men to whom a bounti- 
ful Creator has given ample ability to reclaim their less 
fortunate brethren from vice and crime, but who, through 
ignorance, and the helplessness that accompanies it, leave 
this great duty undischarged. In point of fact, the natural 
law does punish them, and will continue to punish them, 
until they adopt the right method of proceeding. 

If we reckon up the cost, in the destruction of life and 
property, in the maintenance of criminal officers, courts 
of justice, and executioners, and the pangs of sorrow, 
flowing not only from pecuniary loss, but from disgrace, 
sustained by the relatives of profligate offenders, we may 
regard the sum-total as the penalty which the virtuous 
pay for their neglect of the rational principles of criminal 
legislation. 

If the sums thus expended were collected and applied, 
under the guidance of enlightened judgment, to the con- 
struction and proper appointment of penitentiaries — one or 
more for each large district of the country — and if offenders 
were committed to them for reformation, it is probable that 
the total loss to society would not be greater than that of 
the present system, while the advantages would unspeakably 
exceed those which now exist.* 

In regard to the treatment of criminals when placed in 
such penitentiaries, I have already remarked that, in the 
sentences pronounced under the present system, the prin- 
ciple chiefly, although unintentionally, acted upon by the 
superior class of society appears to be revenge. 

If a boy rob a till of a few pence, he is sentenced to eight 

* Effect has been given to these ideas in the establishment of refor- 
matories, industrial schools, and training ships for juvenile offenders, 
as well as in the great convict prisons at Portland, Dartmoor, and 
elsewhere, where the convicts are employed in public works.— 
Ed., 1893. 



156 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xrv, 



days' imprisonment in jail : that is, to eight days' idleness, 
passed in the society of accomplished thieves and profligate 
blackguards ; at the end of which space he is liberated. 
Here the quantity of punishment measured out seems to be 
regulated by the principle that the eight days' confinement 
causes a quantity of suffering equal to a fair retribution for 
robbing the till. 

If a female steal clothes from a hedge, she is sentenced to 
sixty days 1 confinement in Bridewell, where she is forced to 
work in the society of ten or a dozen of profligates like 
herself during the day, and is locked up alone during the 
night. At the end of the sixty days, she is liberated and 
turned adrift on society. The intention of this treatment 
is to cause a quantum of suffering sufficient to deter the 
criminal from repeating the offence, and others from 
committing similar transgressions ; but we shall inquire 
whether these effects follow. 

If we renounce altogether the principle of vengeance as 
unsound, we shall still have other two principles remaining 
as guides to our steps : first, that of protecting society ; 
and secondly, that of reforming the offender. 

The principle of protecting society authorises us to do 
everything that is necessary to accomplish this end, under 
the single qualification that we shall adopt that method 
which, while most beneficial to society, is also least injurious 
to the criminal. If, as I have contended, the world be really 
constituted on the principle of the supremacy of the moral 
sentiments, we shall find that whatever measures serve 
best to protect the public interests will also be most bene- 
ficial for the offender, and vice versa. 

In the view of social protection, any individual who has 
been convicted of infringing the criminal law should be 
handed over, as a moral patient, to the managers of a well- 
regulated penitentiary, to be confined in it, not until he 
shall have endured a certain quantity of suffering, equal in 
magnitude to what is supposed to be a fair revenge for his 
offence, but until such a change shall have been effected in 
his mental condition as may afford society a reasonable 
guarantee that he will not commit fresh crimes when he is 
set at large. 

It is obvious that this course of procedure would be 
humanity itself to the offender, while it would unspeakably 
benefit society. It would convert our prisons from houses 
of retribution and of corruption into schools of reform. It 



trcT xiv.] 



PUNISHMENT OR REFORMATION? 



157 



would require, however, an entire change in the principles 
on which they are conducted. 

Judging from the ultimate effect, we find that the indi- 
viduals who for some petty offence are committed to Bride- 
well for the first time, for only fourteen days, are in reality 
more severely punished than those who, for some more 
grave infringement of the law, are sentenced at first to two 
years' imprisonment. Nay, the ultimate result to the petty 
delinquent would be far more Leneficial if for his trifling 
offence he had been sentenced to two years' confinement 
instead of fourteen days ; 

The chief forms in which the law punishes are confinement 
in prisons (until very lately in idleness, and amidst vicious 
associates) and, in more aggravated cases, transportation to 
a penal colony. # 

If the humane principles which I now advocate shall ever 
be adopted (and I feel confident that they will), the sentence 
of the criminal judge, on conviction of a crime, should 
simply declare that the individual had committed a certain 
offence, and that he was not fit to live at large in society. 
It should contain a warrant for his transmission to a peni- 
tentiary, to be there confined, instructed, and employed, 
until liberated in due course of law. The treatment in 
prison and the process of liberation would then become 
the objects of greatest importance. 

There should be official inspectors of penitentiaries, in- 
vested with some of the powers of a court, sitting at regular 
intervals, and proceeding according to fixed rules. They 
should be authorised to receive applications for liberation 
at all their sessions, and to grant the prayer of them on 
being satisfied that such a thorough change had been 
effected in the mental condition of the prisoner that 

* There are, of course, now no " penal colonies" ; but that fact 
does not impair the force of the argument. Transportation ceased in 
1867, and penal servitude at home took its place. The change has 
been followed by the best results, as the following facts show :— In 
1837 there were in the colonial penal settlements, and in the hulks 
and prisons of England and Wales, 50,000 convicts. In 1869 the 
number had fallen to 13,660, and in 1891 to 4,978. In 1837 the 
number of persons transported was 4,068, and in 1842 it was 4,166. 
The number of persons sentenced to penal servitude was, in 1869, 
2,219 ; in 1889, 1,039 ; and in 1890, 828 ; and this in spite of a very 
great increase in the population. The health of prisoners has at the 
same time improved remarkably, and the rate of mortality among 
them has been greatly lowered. — Ed., 1893. 



158 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. XT7. 



he might safely be permitted to resume his place in 
society.* 

Until this conviction was produced, upon examination of 
his dispositions, of his attainments in knowledge, of his 
acquired skill in some useful employment, of his habits of 
industry, and, in short, of his general qualifications to pro- 
vide for his own support, to restrain his animal propensities 
from committing abuses, and to act the part of a useful 
citizen, he should be retained as an inmate of the prison. 

Perhaps some individuals ^ whose dispositions appeared 
favourable to reformation might be liberated at an earlier 
period, on sufficient security, under bond, given by respon- 
sible relatives or friends, for the discharge of the same 
duties towards them in private which the officers of the 
penitentiary would discharge in public. 

If any offender liberated on bond should ever re-appear as 
a criminal, the penalty should be inexorably enforced, and 
the culprit should never again be liberated, except upon a 
verdict finding that his reformation had been completed by 
a proper term of training in a penitentiary. 

This plan, or one closely resembling it, has been tried 
in Germany with the best effects. At the village of Horn, 
near Hamburgh, there is a house of refuge for juvenile 
offenders of both sexes, named Das Rauhe Haus. It con- 
sists of several plain inexpensive buildings, situated in a 
field of a few acres, without walls, fences, bolts, bars, or 
gates. It is supported by subscription, and the annual 
cost for each individual in 1837, when I visited it, was 
£10 4s. sterling. _ 

It then contained fifty-four inmates, of whom thirteen 
were girls. A portion of them were offenders who had 
been condemned by the courts of law for crimes, and had 
suffered the punishment allotted to them in the house of 
correction, and who afterwards, with the consent of their 
parents, had come voluntarily to the institution for the 
sake of reformation. Another portion of them consisted 
of young culprits apprehended for first offences, whose 
parents, rather than have them tried and dealt with ac- 
cording to law, subscribed a contract by which the youths 
were delivered over for a number of years to this establish- 
ment for amendment. A third portion consisted of 
children of evil dispositions, whose parents voluntarily 



*This is a forecast of the system of police supervision. — Ed., 1893, 



lect. xiv.] PUNISHMENT OR REFORMATION? 159 



applied to have them received into the institution for the 
reformation of their vicious habits. Among this last class 
i saw the son of a German nobleman, who had been sent ta 
it as a last resource, and who was treated in every respect 
like the other inmates, and with marked success. 

The inmates are retained, if necessary, till they attain the 
age of twenty-two. They are instructed in reading, writing, 
and religion, and are taught a trade. There is a master 
for every twelve, who never leaves them night or day. The 
plan of the treatment is that of parental affection mingled 
with strict and steady discipline, in which punishments 
are used for reformation, but never with injurious severity. 
The teachers are drawn chiefly from the lower classes of 
society ; and the head manager, Candidat Wicher, an 
unbeneficed clergyman, himself belonging to this class, 
thus became thoroughly acquainted # with the feelings, 
manners, and temptations of the pupils. 

When I visited the establishment he possessed unlimited 
authority, and shed around him the highest and purest 
influences from his own beautifully moral and intellectual 
mind. He mentioned that only once had an attempt at 
crime been projected. A few of the worst boys laid a plan 
to burn the whole institution, and selected the time of 
his wife's expected confinement, when they supposed that 
his attention would be much engaged with her. One of 
them, however, revealed the design, and it was frustrated. 
The plan had been in operation for four years at the time 
of my visit, and I understand that it continues to flourish 
with unabated prosperity. 

Another instance of the successful application of rational 
and humane principles is afforded by " La Colonie Agricole 
et Penitentiare de Mettray," about four and a half miles 
from Tours, in France. It is described in the Journal de la 
Societe de la Morale Chretienne for September, 1844. 

It was founded in 1839 for the reception of young de- 
linquents, who, under a special provision to that effect, 
are acquitted of their offences (as our lunatics are) comme 
ay ant agi sans discernement (as having acted ivithout di&? 
cernment), but are sentenced to specific periods of correctional 
discipline before their final discharge. It was founded, and 
is still to a considerable extent maintained, by voluntary 
contributions, one benevolent individual, Count Leon 
d'Ourches, having endowed it during his lifetime with 
150,000 francs, and the King and Ptoyal Family, the 



160 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XIV. 



Ministers of the Interior, of Justice, and of Instruction, 
with many public bodies and private individuals, having 
also liberally contributed. 

The principles of management are the following : — 

1. A social or family spirit {esprit de famille) is sedulously 
instilled into the pupils, as opposed to the selfish or merely 
gregarious spirit usually created in large assemblies of 
criminals. 

2. For this purpose, the boys are divided into small 
sections, or families, with common interests and tasks. 

3. In all other respects they are placed in circumstances 
as much as possible resembling those of free life ; and they 
are led to submit to the strict order, obedience, and other 
discipline imposed on them, by appeals to their judgment, 
interests, and feelings, rather than by direct coercion. 
Corporal punishment, in particular, is avoided in regard 
to them. 

4. A carefully impressed religious education is given to 
them, with as much purely intellectual culture as may 
comport with their proposed future condition as labourers. 
Heading, writing, arithmetic, linear drawing, and music 
are considered to constitute the requisite branches. 

Lastly : their employments consist chiefly of those con- 
nected with agricultural and country life ; a strong wish 
being entertained that they should settle to these on being 
discharged rather than return to dense societies. 

*• In the Mettray Institution," says the official report, " we 
use the cell to prepare for our other influences, to enable 
our pupils to recover from the turbulence of excited feeling, 
and sometimes also to lay a foundation of instruction, when 
little aptitude for it is exhibited amidst a crowd. It is in a 
cell, too, that religious impressions are most easily and 
certainly conveyed, and that first habits of industry may 
be formed. 

"From the second year of our establishment, we think 
that we may say that vice had become unpopular, and the 
bad were under the influence of the good. The cause of 
our success has been the application of two fruitful ideas — 
the substitution of a domestic or family spirit in our pupils, 
instead of one proceeding from more gregarious association, 
and the seeking from moral influences the restraints tvhich 
other systems look for in walls, bolts, chains, and severe 
punishments. 93 

The result of this treatment is stated thus : — " The insti- 



ljlct. xiv.] PUNISHMENT OR REFORMATION? 161 



tuition Las received in all four hundred and eleven children, 
of whom one hundred and two have been discharged. Of 
these latter, four have been re-convicted (June, 1844) ; one 
lias been apprehended, and awaits a new trial ; six are con- 
sidered only of middling conduct ; but seventy-nine are irre- 
proachable. Of the remaining twelve nothing is known." 

If such a system were adopted in this country, a sound 
and serviceable philosophy of mind would be of importance 
to guide the footsteps of judges, managers, inspectors, 
liberating officers, and criminals themselves. Without such 
a philosophy, the treatment would be empirical, the results 
unsatisfactory, and the public disappointment great. 

If, keeping in view the principles which I have ex- 
plained, you read attentively the various systems of prison 
discipline which have been tried, you will discover in all 
of them some lurking defect in one essential particular or 
another, and perceive that their success has been great or 
small in proportion as they have approached to or receded 
from these principles. 

The advocates of the treadmill proceeded on the theory 
that the irksomeness of the labour would terrify the 
offenders so much that, if they had once undergone it, 
they would refrain from crime during their whole lives, 
to avoid encountering it again. This notion, however, was 
without sufficient foundation. The labour, although pain- 
ful at the time, did not in the least remove the causes of 
crime ; and after the pain had ceased, these causes con- 
tinued to operate, offences were repeated, and treadmills 
have now fallen considerably into disrepute. 

Captain Maconochie # states confidently, from much ex- 
perience, that the mixture of a free and a convict population 
while the latter is still in a state of bondage is fatal to 
both. The administration of justice is impaired by its 
dependence on colonial interests and prejudices, and be- 
comes inconsistent ; while its importance is lost sight of 
amidst a variety of other questions, interests, and details. 
The expense, also, is greatly increased by the heavy police- 
judicial, military, and executive — which is indispensable to 
keep down the confusion, abuse, and crime thus created. 
" Penal settlements, therefore, should be separated from 
free colonies altogether, and not even be subject to them, 

* Author of an account of "The Management of the Penal 
Colonies" (1845). He was Superintendent of Norfolk Island. — 
Ed., 1893. 

L . 



162 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XIV. 



but be kept in direct correspondence with the Government 
at home." 

I have personally visited the State prisons at Boston ; at 
Blackwell's Island and Auburn, in the State of New York ; 
the Eastern Penitentiary and the Moyamensing Prison of 
Philadelphia ; and the State Prison at Weathersfield, Con- 
necticut. I cheerfully testify to their great superiority over 
the vast majority of British prisons ; but I am still humbly- 
of opinion that the discipline, even in them, proceeds on an 
imperfect knowledge of the nature of the individuals who 
are confined and punished in them. 

In the prisons of Auburn and Sing- Sing, in the State of 
New York, and at Weathersfield, in the State of Connecti- 
cut, the system which has been adopted is one combining 
solitary confinement at night, hard labour by day, the strict, 
observance of silence, and attention to moral and religious 
improvement. 

At sunrise the convicts proceed in regular order to the 
several workshops, where they remain under vigilant super- 
intendence until the hour of breakfast, when they repair to 
the common hall. When at their meals, the prisoners are 
seated at tables in single rows, with their backs towards 
the centre, so that there can be no interchange of signs. 
From one end of the work-rooms to the other upwards of 
five hundred convicts may be seen without a single individual 
being observed to turn his head towards a visitor. Not a 
whisper is heard throughout the apartments. 

At the close of the day labour is suspended, and the 
prisoners return in military order to their solitary cells ; 
there they have the opportunity of reading the Scriptures 
and of reflecting in silence on their past lives. The chaplaiu 
occasionally visits the cells, instructing the ignorant, and 
administering the reproofs and consolations of religion. 

In the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania the convict 
is locked up solitarily in a cell during t the whole period of 
his sentence. He is permitted to labour, and is instructed 
in moral and religious duties ; but he is allowed to hold no 
converse with society nor with the other inmates of the 
prison. 

The following remarks on these prisons are offered for 
your consideration : — 

There is only one way of strengthening the facilities, and 
that is by exercising them ; and all the American prisons 
which I have seen are lamentably deficient in arrangements 



lect. xiv.] PUNISHMENT OR REFORMATION? 163 



for exercising the moral "and intellectual powers of their 
inmates. During the hours of labour no advance can be 
made beyond learning a trade. This is a valuable addition 
to a convict's means of reformation ; but it is not all- 
sufficient. After the hours of labour, he is locked up in 
solitude ; and I doubt much whether he can read, for want of 
light ; but. assuming that he can, reading is a very imperfect 
means of strengthening the moral powers. They must be 
exercised, trained, and habituated to action. 

My humble opinion is that in prisons there should be a 
teacher of high moral and intellectual power for every eight 
or ten convicts ; that after the close of labour these in- 
structors should commence a system of vigorous culture of 
the superior faculties of the prisoners, excite their moral 
and religious feelings, and instruct their understandings. 

In no country has the idea been carried into effect that 
in order to produce moral fruits it is necessary to put into 
action moral influences, great and powerful in proportion to 
the barrenness of the soil from which they are expected to 
spring ; and yet this is a self-evident truth. 

A difference of opinion exists among intelligent persons 
whether the system of solitary confinement and solitary 
labour, pursued in the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, 
or the system followed in Auburn, of social labour in silence, 
enforced by inspectors, and solitary confinement after 
working hours, is more conducive to the ends of criminal 
legislation. The principles now stated lead to the con- 
clusion that living in entire solitude weakens the whole 
nervous system. It withdraws external excitement from 
the animal propensities, but it operates in the same manner 
on the moral and intellectual faculties. Social life is to 
these powers what an open field is to the muscles : it is 
their theatre of action ; and without action there can be no 
vigour. Solitude, even when combined with labour and 
the use of books, and an occasional visit from a religious 
instructor, leaves the moral faculties still in a passive state, 
and without the means of vigorous active exertion. 

The Auburn system of social labour is better, in my 
opinion, than that of Pennsylvania, in so far as it allows of 
a little more stimulus to the social faculties, and does not 
weaken the nervous system to so great an extent, but it 
has no superiority in regard to providing efficient means 
for invigorating and training the moral and intellectual 
faculties. 
L 2 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XIV. 



The Pennsylvania system preserves the convict from 
contamination by evil communications with his fellow- 
prisoners, and prevents the other convicts from knowing the 
fact of his being in prison. It does not, however, hinder 
his associates who are at large from becoming aware of his 
conviction and imprisonment. The reports of the trial in 
the public newspapers inform the convict's companions of 
these ; and I was told that they keep a note of them, and 
watch for him on the day of his release, if they should 
happen themselves to be then at large, and welcome him 
back to profligacy and crime. 

The principles of criminal legislation now advocated 
necessarily imply the abolition of the punishment of death. 



165 



LECTURE XV. 

Minok Social Duties. 

Having- discussed the social duties which we owe to the 
poor and to criminals, I proceed to notice several duties of 
a minor and more private nature, but which still are strictly- 
social and very important. I refer to the duties of guardian- 
ship and surety. 

As human life is liable to be cut short at any stage of its 
progress, there are always existing a considerable number of 
children who have been deprived, by death, of one or both 
of their parents ; and an obligation devolves on some one 
or more of the members of society to discharge the duties of 
guardians towards them. When the children are left 
totally destitute, the parish is bound to maintain them ; 
and that duty has already been considered under the head 
of the treatment of the poor. 

It is, therefore, only children who stand in need of per- 
sonal guidance, or who inherit property that required to be 
protected, whose case we are now to consider. We may be 
called on to discharge these duties either by the ties of 
nature, as being the next of kin, or by being nominated 
guardians or trustees in a deed of settlement executed by a 
parent who has committed his property and family to our 
care. 

Many persons do not regard these as moral duties, but 
merely as discretionary calls, which every one may dis- 
charge or decline without blame, according to his own 
inclination : and there are individuals w 7 ho recount some 
half-dozen of instances in which trustees and guardians, 
after having undergone much labour and anxiety, have been 
rewarded with loss, obloquy, and ingratitude ; and who, on 
the exculpatory strength of these cases, wrap themselves up 
in impenetrable selfishness, and during their whole lives 
decline to undertake such duties for any human being. 

It is impossible to deny that instances of flagrant in- 
gratitude to guardians have occurred on the part of wards, 
but these are exceptions to a general rule ; and if the 
practice of declinature were to become general, young 
orphans would be left as aliens in society, the prev of every 



166 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XV. 



designing knave, or would be cast on the cold affections of 
public officers appointed by the State to manage their affairs. 

While there are examples of misconduct and ingratitude 
on the part of wards, there are also, unfortunately, nume- 
rous instances of malversation on the part of guardians ; 
and those who are chargeable with this offence are too apt, 
when called to account, to complain of hardship and want 
of just feeling on the part of their wards, as a screen to 
their own delinquencies. I have known some instances, 
indeed, but very few, in which children whose affairs had 
been managed with integrity,. and whose education had been 
superintended with kindness and discretion, have proved 
ungrateful ; but I have known several flagrant examples of 
cruel mismanagement by guardians. 

In one instance, both the father and the mother of two 
female children died when the elder of the children was only 
about three years of age: The father was survived by a 
brother, and also by a friend, both of whom he named as 
guardians. He left about £3,000 in property. The brother 
was just starting in business, and had the world before 
him. He put £1,500 of the trust money into his own 
pocket, without giving any security to the children ; and 
during the whole of their minority he used it as his own, 
and neither paid them interest nor repaid the capital. 

His co-trustee, who was no relation in blood, was as 
striking an example of generosity as this individual was 
of selfishness. He lent out the other £1,500, took the 
children into his house, educated them alon^ with his own 
family, applied the interest of the half of their fortune he 
had rescued faithfully for their benefit, and finally accounted 
to them honestly for every shilling. 

When the children became of age, they prosecuted their 
disinterested uncle for the portion of their funds w<hich he 
had mistaken for his own ; and after considerable liti- 
gation they succeeded in recovering principal, interest, and 
compound interest, which the Court awarded against him, 
in consequence of the flagrancy of the case ; but they were 
loudly taxed by him and his family w 7 ith ingratitude and 
want of affection for calling into a court of law so near and 
dear a relative ! 

As a contrast to this case, I am acquainted with an 
instance in which a body of trustees named in a deed of 
settlement by a mere acquaintance, a person who had no 
claim on their services through relationship, managed, for 



LECT. XV.] 



MINOR SOCIAL DUTIES. 



167 



many years, the funds of a young family, superintended 
the education of the children, and accounted faithfully for 
every farthing that came into their possession, but who, at 
the close of their trust, owing to their having employed a 
law-agent who did not attend to his duty, and owing to the 
children having turned out immoral, were sued personally 
for £1,000 each, and were involved in a very troublesome 
and expensive litigation. 

I mention these facts to convey to the younger part of my 
audience, who may not have had experience in such matters, 
an idea at once of the trouble and risk which often accom- 
pany the duty of guardianship. At the same time, I have 
no hesitation in saying that I consider every man bound to 
undertake that duty, with all its discomforts and dangers, 
where the dictates of the higher sentiments urge him to do so. 

There are instances, however, in which men, from their 
vanity or from more selfish motives, do not appeal, in their 
deeds of settlement, to their own respectable relatives and 
friends for assistance, but name men of eminent rank as the 
guardians of their children, under the double expectation of 
adding a posthumous lustre to their own names, and of secur- 
ing a distinguished patronage to their family. This practice 
is disowned by conscience and by just feelings of inde- 
pendence, and trustees called on in such circumstances to 
act are clearly entitled to decline. 

Suppose, then, that a case presents itself in which one of 
us feels himself justly required to accept the office of a 
trustee or guardian under a deed of settlement : what is it 
his duty to do 1 Certain rules of law are laid down for the 
guidance of persons acting in these capacities, with which 
he should, at the very first, make himself acquainted. They 
are framed for the direction of average men, and on the 
whole prescribe a line of duty which tends essentially to 
protect the ward, but which also, when observed, affords an 
equal protection to the guardian. 

It has often appeared to me, from seeing the loss and 
suffering to which individuals are exposed from ignorance 
of the fundamental rules of law on this subject, that in- 
struction in them, and in other principles of law applicable 
to duties which the ordinary members of society are called 
on to discharge, should form a branch of general education. 

After having become acquainted with our duties as trus- 
tees or guardians, we should bend our minds sedulously to 
the upright discharge of them. We should lay down a 



168 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. XT. 



positive resolution not to convert our wards, or their pro- 
perty and affairs, into sources of gain to ourselves, and not to 
suffer any of our co-trustees to do such an act. However 
tempting it may be to employ their capital in our own busi- 
ness, and however confident we may feel that we shall 
in the end honestly account to them for every shilling of 
their property — still, I say, we ought not to yield to the 
temptation. 

The moment we do so, we commit their fortunes to all 
the hazards of our own ; and this is a breach of trust. We 
place ourselves in circumstances in which, by the failure of 
our own schemes, we may become the instruments of 
robbing and ruining helpless and destitute children, com- 
mitted, as the most sacred charges, to our honesty and 
honour. If this grand cause of malversation be avoided, 
there is scarcely another that may not be easily resisted. 

After abstaining ourselves from misapplying the funds of 
our wards, our next duty is to watch over our co-trustees or 
co-guardians, in order to prevent them from falling into a 
similar temptation. Men of sensitive, delicate, and upright 
minds, who are not in the least prone to commit this 
offence themselves, often feel extraordinary hesitation in 
checking a less scrupulous co-trustee in his malpractices. 
They view the act as so dishonourable that they shrink 
from taxing another with it, and they try to shut their eyes 
as long as possible to mismanagement, solely from aversion 
to give pain by bringing it to a close. This is a weakness 
that is not founded in reason, but on a most erroneous 
view both of duty and of human nature. 

I can testify, from experience and observation, that a 
man who is thoroughly honest never objects to have his 
transactions examined with the utmost strictness. He is 
conscious of virtue, and is pleased that his virtue should be 
discovered, which can never be done so effectually as by a 
close scrutiny of his conduct. We shall, therefore, never 
offend a really good and trustworthy man by inquiring 
habitually how he is discharging his duty. On the con- 
trary, he will invite us to do so, and will esteem us the more, 
the more attentively we watch over the affairs of our pupils. 

11 That steward whose account is clear 
Demands his honour ma}- appear ; 
His actions never shun the light. 
He is, and would be proved, "upright. " 

Gaifs Fables, Part II., Fab. 6. 



LECT.xv.] MINOR SOCIAL DUTIES. 



169 



On the other hand, if Conscientiousness be so defective 
in any individual that he is tempted to misapply the funds 
committed to his care, he stands the more in need of being 
closely watched, and of having his virtue supported by 
checks and by counsel ; and in such circumstances no false 
delicacy should be allowed to seal our lips and tie up our 
hands. We cannot give just offence by the discharge of 
our duty in stopping peculation. If our co-guardian be 
upright, he will thank us for our scrupulosity ; whereas, if 
he be dishonest, his feeling of offence will resemble that of 
a rogue towards the officer who detects him and brings him 
to justice, which is unworthy of consideration. 

But even in this case we shall give much less offence 
than we imagine. It is a fact— of which I am convinced by 
extensive observation — that men in whom Conscientiousness 
is deficient, and who are thereby more prone to yield to the 
temptation of infringing justice, have very little of that 
sensibility to the disgrace of dishonesty which better con- 
stituted minds feel acutely ; and hence we may speak to 
them very plainly about their departures from duty with- 
out their feeling debased. But whether they be offended 
or not, it is the duty of their co-trustees to prevent them 
from doing wrong. 

If the funds of our pupils be properly preserved and pro- 
fitably invested, there will generally be little risk of serious 
failure in the remaining duties of trustees and guardians. 
These consist generally in seeing that the children are pro- 
perly maintained, educated, and set out in life. Every 
trustee will be more able to discharge these duties w^ell in 
proportion to the range and value of his own information. 

The next social duty to which I advert is that of surety- 
ship — or cautionary, as it is called in Scotland. A surety may 
either engage to pay a certain sum of money if the principal 
obligant fail, or become bound for his good behaviour and 
proper discharge of duty in any office to which he has been 
appointed. Great losses and much misery often arise from 
suretyship, and in consequence, many persons lay down the 
rule never to become surety for any human being ; while 
others, of a more generous and confiding nature, are ready 
to bind themselves for almost any one who gives them 
a solemn assurance that they will never be called on 
to pay. 

I shall attempt to expound the philosophy of the subject, 
and we shall then be better able to judge of our duty. 



170 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



(lzct. XV. 



Surety is a lame substitute for a knowledge of human 
character. There are men whose prudence and integrity 
are proof against every temptation ; and if we were cer- 
tain that any particular individual whom we designed to 
trust, or to employ in our affairs, was one of these, we 
should desire no other security for his solvency or his good 
conduct than that afforded by his own noble nature. But 
we know that there are also plausible persons who are only 
ostensibly honest ; and we are never certain that an in- 
dividual whom we are disposed to trust or employ may not, 
in an unlucky hour, be found to belong to this class. 

We therefore require that someone who knows his quali- 
ties should certify his possession of prudence and integrity, 
in the only way that can convince us of the entire sincerity 
of the recommendation : namely, by engaging to pay the 
debt in case of default, or to indemnify us if, through 
negligence or dishonesty, we shall suffer loss. 

We come now to inquire into the practical rule which we 
should follow in regard to undertaking suretyship. In the 
present state of society, the exacting of security is in many 
instances indispensable ; and I cannot, therefore, see any 
ground on which those who decline in all circumstances to 
undertake it can be defended. It appears to me to be 
a necessary duty, which presents itself to many individuals ; 
and although, when imprudently discharged, it may be 
hazardous, we are not on that account entitled entirely to 
shrink from it. There are several precautions, however, 
which we are not only entitled, but are called on, to adopt 
for our own protection. 

In the first place, no man should ever bind himself to pay 
money to an extent which, if exacted, would render him 
bankrupt : for this would be to injure his creditors by bis 
suretyship ; nay, he should not bind himself gratuitously to 
pay any sum for another which, if lost, would seriously 
injure his own family. 

In short, no man is called on to undertake gratuitous and 
noenevolent obligations beyond the extent which he can 
discharge without severe and permanent suffering to him- 
self ; and in subscribing such obligations, he should in- 
variably calculate on being called on to fulfil them by 
payment. In general, men even of ordinary prudence find 
by experience that they are compelled to pay at least 
one -half of all the cautionary obligations which they under- 
take, and the imprudent even more. Unless, therefore, 



lect. xv.] MINOR SOCIAL DUTIES. 



171 



they are disposed to go to ruin in the career of social kind- 
ness, they should limit their obligations in proportion to 
their means. 

Secondly — We should consider the object sought to be 
attained by the applicant. If he be a young man who 
desires to obtain employment, or to commence business on 
a moderate scale on his own account, or if a friend in a 
temporary, unexpected, and blameless emergency need our 
aid, good may, in these instances, result from the act. Bat 
if the suretyship is wanted merely to enable a person who 
is doing well to do, as he imagines, a great deal better, 
to enable him to extend his business, or to get into a more 
lucrative situation, we may often pause, and reasonably 
consider whether we are about to serve our friend, or to 
injure both him and ourselves. 

According to my observation, the men who have succeeded 
best in the pursuits of this world, and have longest 
and most steadily enjoyed prosperity and character, are 
those who, from moderate beginnings, have advanced 
slowly and steadily along the stream of fortune, aided 
chiefly by their own mental resources : men who have 
never hastened to be rich, but who, from the first, have seen 
that time, economy, and prudence are the grand elements 
of ultimate success. These men ask only the means of a 
fair commencement, and afterwards give no trouble, either 
to the public or to their friends. Success flows upon them 
as the natural result of their own course of action, and they 
never attempt to force it prematurely. 

There are other individuals, full of sanguine hope, in- 
ordinate ambition, or boundless love of gain, who never 
discover the advantages of their present possessions, but 
are constantly aiming at an imaginary prosperity just at 
arm's length beyond their reach, and who solicit their 
friends to aid them that they may seize the prize. They 
urge their acquaintances to become sureties for them to 
raise money in order to extend their business. 

I recommend to those to whom this appeal is made 
to moderate the pace of these sanguine speculators, instead 
of helping to accelerate it : to advise them to practise 
economy and patience, and to wait till they acquire capital 
of their own to increase their trade. The danger of under- 
taking obligations for such men arises from their over- 
sanguine, ambitious, and grasping dispositions, which are 
rendered only more ardent by encouragement. The chances 



172 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XV. 



are many that they will ruin themselves, and will bring 
serious loss on their sureties. 

I have seen deplorable examples of families absolutely 
ruined by one of their number possessing this character. 
By brilliant representations of approaching fortune, he 
succeeded in obtaining possession of the moderate patri- 
monies of his brothers and s'.sters, the funds provided for 
his mother's annuity — in short, the whole capital left by 
his father, as the fruit of a long and laborious life— and in a 
few years he dissipated every sixpence of it in enterprises 
and speculations of the most extravagant description. 

As a general rule, therefore, I would dissuade you from 
undertaking suretyship merely to increase the quantity or 
to accelerate the march of prosperity, if your friend, by the 
aid of time, prudence, and economy, have it in his power 
ultimately to command success by his own resources. 

In becoming bound for the good conduct of an individual 
in a new employment, you should satisfy yourselves that 
the situation into which you are about to introduce him 
is suited to his natural dispositions and capacities, and 
is not calculated to bring the weaker elements of his 
character into play, and to be the means of ruining him, 
as well as of injuring yourselves. Suppose, for example, 
that a young man has any latent seeds of intemperance in 
his constitution, or that he is fond of a wandering and 
unsettled life, and that, by becoming surety for his faithful 
accounting, you should obtain employment for him as a 
mercantile travelling agent, you might manifestly expose 
him to temptations which might completely upset his 
virtue. I have known individuals who, in more favourable 
circumstances, had acquired and maintained excellent 
characters, who were ruined by this change. 

Again, if an individual be either extremely good-natured — 
so much so that he cannot resist solicitation — or if he be 
ambitious and fond of display and power, or very specu- 
lative ; 'and if you aid him in obtaining an agency for 
a bank, by which means he will obtain an immediate 
command of large sums of money, you may bring him to 
ruin when you intended to do him a great service ; for 
his integrity will thereby be exposed to assaults in all these 
directions. It has been remarked that more men prove 
unsuccessful as bank-agents than almost in any other office 
of trust ; and the reason appears to me to be that the free 
command of money presents greater temptations to the 



LECT. XV.] 



MINOR SOCIAL DUTIES, 



173 



weak points of character than almost any other external 
circumstance.* 

For this reason, it is only men of the highest natural 
moral qualities who should be appointed to such situations : 
individuals whose integrity and love of justice and duty are 
paramount over all their other feelings ; and then, with 
average intellectual endowments, their conduct will be 
irreproachable.f 

Another social duty which men are occasionally called on 
to discharge is that of acting privately as arbitrators 
between disputing parties, or publicly ^jurymen. Accord- 
ing to the present practice, no special preparation for these 
duties is supposed to be necessary. A young man may 
have obtained any kind of education, or no education ; he 
may possess any degree of intelligence and talent ; and he 
may be upright in his dispositions, or very much the 
reverse ; yet none of these things are of the least considera- 
tion in regard to his qualification to serve as a juror. As 
soon as he is found inhabiting a house, or possessing a 
shop or a farm of a certain rent, his name is placed on 
the list of jurors ; he is summoned in his turn to sit on the 
bench of justice, and there he disposes, by his vote, of the 
lives and fortunes of his fellow-men. 

The defence maintained for this system is, that as twelve 
individuals are selected in civil cases, and fifteen in criminal, 
the verdict will embody the average intelligence and 
morality of the whole ; and that, as the roll of jurors 
includes all the higher and middle ranks, their decisions, if 
not absolutely perfect, will at least be the best that can be 
obtained. This apology is, to some extent, well-founded ; 
and the superior intelligence of a few frequently counter- 
acts a vast amount of ignorance and dulness in a jury. 
Still, the extent of this ignorance and inaptitude is a great 
evil ; and as it is susceptible of removal, it should not 
be permitted to exist. 

All of you who have served as jurors must be aware 
of the great disadvantages under which individuals labour 

* This evil has been greatly diminished by the strict system of 
inspection of branches now adopted. — Ed., 1893. 

t Several joint -stock companies have recently been formed to 
guarantee the intromissions and good conduct of persons employed in 
situations of trust, and the moderate premiums which they demand 
speak highly for the general integrity of the industrious classes of 
Great Britain, 



174 



'MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XV. 



in that situation from want of original education, as well as 
from want of habits of mental application. 

I knew an instance in which a jury, in a civil cause which 
embraced a long series of mercantile transactions, including 
purchases, sales, bills, excise entries, permits, and other 
technical formalities, was composed of four Edinburgh 
traders and of eight men balloted from the county of 
Edinburgh, where it borders on Lanarkshire and Peebles- 
shire— men who occupied small farms, who held the plough 
and drove their own carts : persons of undoubted respec- 
tability and intelligence in their own sphere, but who knew 
nothing of mercantile affairs : whose education and habits 
rendered them totally incapable of taking notes of evidence, 
and, of course, of forming any judgment for themselves. 

When the jury retired at ten o'clock at night, after 
a trial of twelve hours, one of the merchants was chosen 
foreman, and he asked the opinion of his brethren in 
succession. Eight of them echoed the charge of the presid- 
ing judge, but the other three announced a contrary 
opinion. The jurors from the country, seeing that the 
merchants were all on one side, and they on the other, 
acknowledged that the details of the case had extended far 
beyond their capacity of comprehension : that they really 
could form no judgment on the question, and therefore 
they concluded that it was safest to follow the judge. 

The minority, who understood the case thoroughly, 
differed from the judge ; they took great pains to explain, 
from their own notes, the leading circumstances to the 
majority, and succeeded in bringing them over to their 
opinion ; and the result was a verdict of a totally opposite 
description to that at first proposed. I obtained this 
information the day after the trial from one of those who 
had stood in the minority. The verdict was right, and no 
attempt was made to disturb it by the party who lost his 
cause. 

The majority were not to blame ; they had been called on 
to discharge a public duty for which they were totally un- 
prepared, and they did their best to accomplish the ends of 
justice. But what I humbly submit to your consideration 
is, that as the ordinary members of the community are 
called on to exercise the very important office of jurors, and 
may become the instruments of taking away the life or the 
property of their fellow-men, their education should be so 
conducted as to qualify them, to a reasonable extent, for 



LECT. XV.] 



MINOR SOCIAL DUTIES. 



175 



discharging so grave a duty. If we were accustomed to 
look on our social duties as equally important with our 
private interest, instruction calculated to qualify us to 
comprehend questions of private right and public crimi- 
nality would undoubtedly form a branch of our early in- 
struction. 

It might be useful to confer certificates or civil degrees 
on young men, founded on an examination into their educa- 
tional attainments, and to render these indispensable by 
law to their being placed on the roll of jurors, or even ot 
voters, and also to their exercising any public office of trust, 
honour, or emolument. The effects of such a regulation 
would probably be that it would be considered disgraceful 
to want this qualification : that parents would strain every 
nerve to obtain it for their children: and that all who 
required to be the architects of their own fortunes would 
pursue such studies as would enable them to acquire it. 

Analogous to the duty of a juror is that of acting as 
arbitrator between individuals who have differences with 
each other which they cannot amicably adjust. This being 
altogether a voluntary duty, it may be supposed that only 
those who are well known to be qualified for it will be 
called on to discharge it ; but the reverse is too often the 
case. Individuals who. are themselves ignorant of the 
nature of an arbitrator's duties are no judges of what 
qualifies another person to discharge them, and they often 
make most preposterous selections. , - ; 

It is indeed a very common opinion that the referee is: 
the advocate of the party who nominates him, and that 
his duty consists in getting as many advantages for his 
friend as possible. Hence, in anticipation of disagreement, 
power is generally given to the two referees, in case of 
difference in opinion, to choose a third person, whose award- 
shall be final ; and not unfrequently this oversman, as he is 
called in Scotland, halves the differences between the two 
discordant arbitrators, and assumes that this must be 
absolute justice. 

It is a favourite maxim with persons not conversant with 
law that all disputes are best settled by a reference to 
" honest men judging according to equity." I have never 
been blind to the imperfections of law and of legal de- 
cisions ; but I must be permitted to say that I have seen 
the worst of them far surpassed in absurdity and error by 
the decisions of honest men judging according to equity. " ' 



176 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xy. 



If any of you have ever acted as an arbitrator, he must 
have found that the first difficulty that presented itself to 
his understanding was the wide difference between the con- 
tending parties regarding matters of fact. The law solves 
this difficulty by requiring evidence, and by establishing 
rules for determining what evidence shall be sufficient. 
Honest men, in general, hold themselves to be quite capable 
of discovering, by the inherent sagacity of their own minds, 
which statement is true and which false, without any 
evidence whatever, or, at least, by the aid of a very lame 
probation. 

The next difficulty which an arbitrator experiences is to 
discover a principle in reason by which to regulate his 
judgment, so that impartial men may be capable of per- 
ceiving why he decides as he does, and that the parties 
themselves may be convinced that justice has been done 
to them. In courts of law, certain rules, which have been 
derived from a comprehensive survey of human affairs and 
much experience, are taken as the guides of the under- 
standing in such circumstances. 

These are called rules or principles of law. They do not 
alvays possess the characteristics of wisdom which I have 
here described, nor are they always successfully applied ; 
but the objects aimed at, both in framing and in applying 
them, are unquestionably truth and justice. Yet honest 
men, judging according to equity, too frequently treat all 
such rules with contempt, assume their own feelings to be 
better guides, and conceive that they have dispensed 
absolute justice, when they have followed the dictates of 
their own understandings, unenlightened, inexperienced, 
and sometimes swayed by many prejudices. 

I know a case in which the arbitrator found himself 
much puzzled, and resorted to this method of solving the 
difficulty : He called the tw 7 o parties, Mr. A and Mr. B, to 
meet him in a tavern, and placed them in separate rooms. 
He went first to Mr. A, and told him that he had seriously 
read all the papers, had considered the case, and had come 
to the conclusion that he, Mr. A, was entirely in the wrong, 
and that he meant to decide against him, but had called 
him and Mr. B to meet him, to try, if it were possible, to 
negotiate a compromise between them, to save himself from 
the disagreeable necessity of pronouncing such a decision. 
He concluded by asking Mr. A what was the largest sum 
he would voluntarily offer to avoid the impending decision. 



ttecT. XV.] 



MINOR SOCIAL DUTIES. 



177 



Mr. A, after expressing his surprise and disappointment, 
and arguing his case anew, which argument was heard 
patiently and pronounced to be unsatisfactory, at last 
named a sum. The arbitrator proceeded to the room in 
which Mr. B was waiting, and told him that he had studied 
the case, &c, and was extremely sorry that he regarded him 
as completely in the wrong, and meant to decide against 
him ; but as he had a regard for him, he begged to know 
the smallest sum which he was willing to accept if Mr. A 
could be induced to offer it as an amicable compromise, to 
save him the pain of pronouncing such a judgment. Mr. B 
argued, and was listened to ; his arguments were repelled, 
and he was again solicited to name a sum, under pain of 
having a decision immediately announced which would 
deprive him of all. He at last named a sum. 

There was a wide difference between the sums named ; 
but the referee was not to be defeated. He went backward 
and forward between thorn, constantly threatening each in 
turn with his adverse decision, till he forced the one up and 
beat the other down, so that they at last met ; and then, 
keeping them still apart, he caused each of them to sub- 
scribe a binding letter of compromise. This accomplished, 
he introduced them to each other, and boasted of the equity 
of his mode of settling the dispute. 

This decision was more disinterested than one of a 
similar kind mentioned by Cicero. An arbiter, Quintus 
Fabius Labeo, being appointed by the Senate of Borne to 
settle a boundary between the people of Nola and those of 
Naples, counselled each to avoid greediness, and rather to 
restrict than unjustly to extend their claims. They both 
acted on this advice, and a space of unclaimed ground was 
left in the middle. He gave to each the boundary which 
they had claimed, and the middle space to the Roman 
people ! 



M 



178 



LECTURE XVI. 
Government. 

Various opinions have been entertained by philosophers 
regarding the origin of government. Some have viewed it 
as" an extension of the parental authority instituted by 
Nature ; others, as founded on a compact, by which the 
subjects surrendered part of their natural liberty to their 
rulers, and obtained in return protection, and the ad- 
ministration of just laws for the public benefit. Some have 
assigned to it a Divine origin, and have held that kings and 
rulers of every rank are the delegates of Heaven, and have 
a title to exercise dominion altogether independently of the 
will of their subjects. None of these views appear to me 
to reach the truth. 

In the human mind we find social instincts, the activity 
of which leads men to congregate in society. We observe 
that they differ in natural force of character, intellectual 
talent, and bodily strength, whence some are powerful and 
some weak. We discover also faculties of Veneration, 
giving the tendency to look up with respect to superior 
power, to bow before it, and to obey it. There are also 
faculties of Self -Esteem, prompting men to assume authority, 
to wield it, and to exact obedience. 

Government seems to me to spring from the spontaneous 
activity of these faculties, combined with intellect, without 
any special design or agreement on the part either of 
governors or of subjects. In rude ages, individuals possess- 
ing active temperaments, and a large amount of Self-Esteem 
and Love of Approbation, would naturally assume superi- 
ority and command. Men with less mental energy and 
considerable Veneration would as instinctively obey ; and 
hence government would begin. 

In proportion as the moral and the intellectual faculties 
develop themselves in a tribe or a nation, there is a tendency 
to define and set limits to the power of the rulers, and to 
ascertain and enlarge the boundaries of the liberties of the 
subjects. External circumstances also modify the character 
of the government. When they are surrounded by powerful 
and ambitious neighbours, the subjects of a particular State 



LECT. XVI.] 



GOVERNMENT. 



17S 



forego many individual advantages for the sake of the 
higher security which they derive from placing the whole 
power of the nation in the hands of a single individual. 

They prefer a despotism , because it enables the executive 
government to concentrate and propel the whole physical 
force of the kingdom against an invading enemy. In other 
circumstances, where local situations, such as those of 
England or of the United States of North America, expose 
the national independence to few dangers, the subjects, in 
proportion to their moral and intellectual advancement, 
naturally limit the power of their sovereigns or rulers. 

I regard the form of government of any particular coun- 
try to have arisen from the following causes, or some 
combination of them — 

First — The mental development of the people. 

Secondly — The temperament of the people. 

Thirdly — The soil and climate of the country. 

Fourthly — The character and condition of the nations 
w T ith whom they are geographically in contact. And, 

Lastly — The extent of moral and intellectual cultivation 
which the people have undergone. 

Rationally viewed, government is the just exercise, by one 
or a few individuals, of the powder and authority of the 
nation, delegated to them for the general good ; and the 
only moral foundation of it is the general consent of the 
people. There may be conquest, and masters and slaves ; 
but this form of government is the result of force triumph- 
ing over right ; and one duty incumbent on the people in 
such a state of things is to overthrow the victor's dominion 
as speedily as possible. 

It is an error to suppose that Nature requires us, when we 
enter into the social state, to abandon or to limit our rights 
as individuals. Man is by nature a social being, and ample 
gratification of all his faculties, within the limits of morality 
and health, is compatible with his existence in that con- 
dition. 

" Man has a right," says Mr. Hurlbut, # " to the gratifi- 
cation, indulgence, and exercise of every innate power and 
faculty of his mind. The exercise of a faculty is its only 
use. The manner of its exercise is one thing that involves 
a question of morals. The right to its exercise is another 
thing, in which no question is involved but the existence 

* Essays on "Human Rights, and their Political Guaranties," by 
E. P. Hurlbut, Counsellor at Law in the City of New York, 1845. 
M 2 



ISO 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XVI. 



of the innate faculty, and the objects presented by Nature 
for its gratification." 

Eulers and subjects are all equally men, and are equally 
placed under the Divine laws ; and as these proclaim the 
obligation on each of us to do to others as we would have 
them to do unto us, and to love our neighbours as our- 
selves, the notion of right in any one man, or class of men, 
to rule for their own pleasure or advantage over their 
neighbours, against their inclination and inconsistently with 
their welfare, is utterly excluded. 

The only government which the moral and intellectual 
faculties can recognise, as founded in Nature, is that which 
flows from the subjects, and is exercised directly for their 
benefit. The doctrine that kings, princes, and nobles have 
rights of property in the homage, services, and devotion of 
other men, which they are entitled to exact for their own 
benefit and gratification, whether agreeable to the will of 
the subjects or not, flows from egotism unregulated by 
reason and justice. It is an example of the selfish system 
carried to infatuation, in which princely rights become 
an overwhelming idea, and obliterate from the mind the 
perceptions of all moral and intellectual distinctions in- 
consistent with themselves. 

The Bourbons pretended to have Divine right of this 
kind to govern France; and when Louis XVIIL was re- 
stored by the victorious arms of the sovereigns of Europe, 
he, out of his mere grace, issued a charter, conferring a cer- 
tain extent of freedom on the French nation. After the revo- 
lution of July, 1830, when Charles X. was driven from the 
throne, the French abjured the principle, and, to prevent 
its recurrence, insisted that Louis Philippe should be styled 
the king, not of France, but of the French : that is, chosen 
by the French people to rule over them. 

The idea that government is instituted and maintained 
exclusively for the welfare of the people does not, however, 
imply that each individual is authorised to resist it when- 
ever he conceives that it is injurious to his particular 
interests, or is disagreeable to his taste. The social law of 
our nature, out of which government springs, binds us to- 
gether for good, and also for evil. If we attempt to advance 
alone, even to good, we shall find ourselves situated like a 
soldier on a march who should move faster or slower than 
his column. He would be instantly jostled out of the 
ranks, and be compelled to walk by himself. The same result 



LECT. XVI.] 



GOVERNMENT. 



181 



occurs in regard to individual attempts to arrest or improve 
a government. 

The first step, in a rational and moral course of action, is 
to convince our fellow-men of the existence of the evils 
which we wish to have removed, and to engage their co- 
operation in the work ; and until this be done, to continue 
to obey. As soon as the evil is generally perceived, and a 
desire for its removal pervades the public mind, the amend- 
ment becomes easy of accomplishment. 

There is the soundest wisdom in the arrangement of 
Providence by which political improvement is slow and 
gradual ; because, in the very nature of things, pure moral 
institutions cannot flourish and produce their legitimate 
fruits unless the people for whom they are intended possess 
corresponding moral and intellectual qualities. This fact 
will become abundantly evident when we trace the progress 
of government more in detail. 

The first requisite towards the formation of a govern- 
ment by a nation is that it be independent of foreign 
powers. If it do not possess independence, the people must 
of necessity submit to the will of their foreign master, who 
generally rules them according to narrow views of his own 
advantage, without the least regard to their feelings or 
welfare. 

Great confusion prevails in the minds of many persons 
regarding the words liberty and independence, when applied 
to nations. A nation is independent when it does not owe 
submission to any foreign power. Thus, France and Spain, 
under the Bourbon dynasties, before the French Revolution, 
were both independent; they owned no superior. But they 
were not free ; the people did not enjoy liberty : that is to 
say, their internal government was despotic ; the personal 
liberty, the lives, and the fortunes of the subjects were 
placed at the uncontrolled disposal of the sovereign. 

England has been independent almost since the Romans 
left the country ; for although it was conquered by the 
Normans in the year 1066, the conquerors fixed their resi- 
dence in the vanquished territory, made it their home, and 
in a few generations were amalgamated with the native 
population. But the English people were not properly free 
till after the revolution in 1688. The Scottish and Irish 
nations now form, along with England, one empire which is 
independent, and all the people of which are free. That is : 
the nation owns no superior on earth, and every individual 



182 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. xvi. 



is protected by the laws in his person, his property,. and ; 
privileges not only against the aggressions of his neigh- s 
tours, but against the government itself. The only obli- 
gation incumbent on the subject towards the State is to 
obey the laws ; and when he has done so the rulers have no 
power over him whatever for evil. 

The history of the world shows that some nations live 
habitually under subjection to foreign Powers : that other 
nations are independent, but not free ; while a few — a very 
few indeed— enjoy at once the blessings of independence 
and of liberty. It may be advantageous to investigate the 
causes of these different phenomena. 

The social duties which we owe to our rulers ,are ex- 
tremely important ; yet we cannot comprehend them 
aright without understanding thoroughly the subject of 
government itself, and the relations of the different kinds 
of it to the human faculties. On this account the brief t 
exposition which I propose to give of this subject is not 
foreign to the grand question of our moral duty. 

The chief requisite to independence is that the people 
shall possess so much intelligence and love of their country 
as to be capable of acting in concert, and of sacrificing, 
when necessary, their individual interests to the public 
welfare. You can easily understand that, however ener- 
getic the individuals of a nation may be, if they should be 
so deficient in intelligence as to be incapable of joining in a 
general plan of defence, they must necessarily fall before a 
body of invaders who obey a skilful leader, and act in 
combination. 

When a nation is assailed by external violence, the great . 
body of the people must be prepared also to sacrifice their 
individual interests at the shrine of their country before .. 
independence can be maintained. The connection between 
national independence and individual welfare is so palpable, . 
and so speedily felt, that a small portion of moral sentiment 
suffices to render men capable of this devotion. It is only 
when indolence and avarice have become the predominant 
feelings of the people, combined with a want of vigour in ; 
Self-Esteem and Combativeness, that they prefer their in- 
dividual comforts and property, even under the galling yoke 
of a foreign foe, to national independence. 

The last and best condition of a nation is when it is not 
only independent, but also free : that is, when it owns no 
foreign master, and when each inhabitant acknowledges np : . 



LECT. XVI,] 



GOVERNMENT. 



183 



master at home, except the laws, and the magistrates who 
are the interpreters and administrators of the laws. 

Before a people can attain to this form of government, 
they must possess not only the qualities requisite for inde- 
pendence, but far higher moral and intellectual gifts than 
mere independence demands. The love of justice must 
have become so prevalent, that no limited number of indi- 
viduals can muster followers sufficient to place themselves 
in the condition of masters over the rest. The community 
in general must be enlightened to such a degree that they 
will perceive the inevitable tendency of individuals i to 
abuse power when they possess it without control ; and 
they must have so much of devotion to the general interests 
as to feel disposed, by a general movement, to oppose and 
put an end to all attempts at acquiring such dominion ; 
otherwise the nation cannot enjoy liberty. They must 
also, as individuals, be, in general, moderate, virtuous, and 
just in their own ambition ; ready to yield to others all the 
political enjoyments and advantages which they claim for 
themselves. 

History confirms these principles. The original European 
settlers of North America were English families, who had 
left their country under religious or political persecution ; 
and their numbers were recruited by industrious persons 
who emigrated to that land with a view to improving their 
condition by the exercise of their industry and talents. 
When they threw off the yoke of Britain, they were a moral 
and an intelligent people ; they instituted the American 
republic, the freest government on earth, which has flou- 
rished in vigour to the present day. 

The continent of South America was peopled at first by 
ruffian warriors and avaricious adventurers, who waded 
through oceans of blood to dominion over the natives, and 
who practised cruelty, oppression, and spoliation, but not 
industry, as their means of acquiring wealth. Their num- 
bers were maintained by a succession of men animated by 
the same motives, and possessing essentially the same 
characteristics, sent out by the corrupted government of old 
Spain, to a harvest of spoil. They were not the amiable, the 
religious, and the laborious sons of the Spanish soil, driven 
away by oppression, hating injustice, and flying to a new 
country for refuge from tyranny, as was the case in North 
America. 

In the beginning of the present century the troubles of 



184 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xvi. 



Spain tempted these South American colonists to disclaim 
her authority ; and they waged, for their independence, a 
long and bloody war, in which they w 7 ere at last success- 
ful. In imitation of the North Americans, they then formed 
themselves into republics, and instituted government by 
laws. 

But mark the result. The cruel, base, self-seeking, dis- 
honest, vain, and ambitious propensities which had distin- 
guished them as Spanish colonists did not instantly leave 
them when they proclaimed themselves to be free citizens 
of independent republics. On the contrary, those feelings 
which had characterised them from the first, continued to 
operate with fearful energy. As private individuals, the 
new- republicans devoted themselves to evading payment of 
all government taxes ; the duties exacted on imported 
commodities were pocketed by the functionaries entrusted 
with their collection, or were converted into the means of 
oppressing rival politicians and traders. Their public 
couriers were robbed. In their Senates, they formed them- 
selves into cabals for the promotion of projects of local 
advantage or of individual ambition ; and when not suc- 
cessful, they obstructed all measures for the general advan- 
tage, or appealed to arms to obtain their objects. 

The consequence has been that, owing solely to ignor- 
ance, selfishness, and to the absence of general morality 
and the love of justice in the people, these States, with 
the richest soils and the finest climates in the world, with 
independence, and with the most improved forms of 
domestic government, have, since they acquired their liberty, 
exhibited almost one unvaried scene of revolution, blood- 
shed, and contention. This is the penalty which Providence 
ordains them to pay for their parents' transgressions, and 
for the immoral dispositions which they inherited from 
them. 

As a contrast to these events, the history of the Swiss 
and of the Dutch may be alluded to. Both of these peoples 
have considerable development of the moral and the 
intellectual organs. The Swiss were early distinguished by 
the simplicity of their manners, and by their moral devotion 
and determination ; while Holland was peopled from 
various countries by individuals flying, like the British 
Americans, from civil or religious persecution. The Swiss 
had been free from time immemorial although their inch* 
pendence dates from 1308. 



LECT. XVI.] 



GOVERNMENT. 



185 



The Austrians invaded Switzerland in great force, and 
the people were called on to sacrifice life and property in 
defence of their liberties. " Never did any people," observes 
Russell, " fight with greater spirit for their liberty than the 
Swiss. They purchased it by above fifty battles against 
the Austrians, and they well deserved the prize for which 
they fought ; for never were the beneficial effects of liberty 
more remarkable than in Switzerland." 

The celebrated battle of Morgarten, in which, for the first 
time, the Swiss defeated the whole force of Austria, affords 
a striking example of the manner in which self-devotion 
contributes to the establishment of independence. "Leo- 
pold assembled 20,000 men, to trample, as he said, the 
audacious rustics under his feet ; but the Swiss beheld the 
gathering storm without dismay. To meet it, and to dispute 
it, 1,400 men, the flower of their youth, grasped their arms, ' 
and assembled at the town of Schweitz. Veneration and 
all the higher sentiments were manifested when they pro- 
claimed a solemn fast, passed the day in religious exercises 
and chanting hymns, and, kneeling down in the open air, 
implored ' the God of heaven and earth to listen to their 
lowly prayers, and humble the pride of their enemies.' 

"They took post on the heights of Morgarten, and awaited 
the approach of the enemy. If ever there were circum- 
stances in which they might have relaxed their rigid virtue, 
it was at the time when their liberties and their very exist- 
ence were at stake ; but even at this moment they disdained 
to recruit their ranks from those whose lives had been 
sullied by the violation of the laws. The petition of fifty 
outlaws, that they might be permitted to share the dangers 
of the day with their countrymen was, therefore, unhesi- 
tatingly rejected. 

" The victory was complete. Besides those who fell in 
the battle, not less than fifteen hundred, most of whom 
were nobles or knights, were slain in the rout ; and Leopold 
himself with difficulty escaped under the guidance of a 
peasant to Winterthur, where he arrived in the evening, 
gloomy, exhausted, and dismayed. A solemn fast was 
decreed to be held in commemoration of the day 'in which 
the God of hosts had visited His people, and given them the 
victory over their enemies'; and the names and heroic 
deeds of those champions who had fallen in defence of 
their country were ordered to be annually recited to the 
people/' 



186 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xvi. 



The history of the Dutch is somewhat similar, although 
not so full of noble generosity. They resisted by force of 
arms, and at the expense of the greatest sufferings and 
sacrifices, the tyranny of Spain, for the sake of liberty of 
conscience ; and at last established at once their indepen- 
dence and their freedom ; and both they and the Swiss con- 
tinue to enjoy these advantages to the present day. How 
unlike was the individual character of the British Americans,, 
the Swiss, and the Dutch, to that of the Spanish Americans ; 
and how different the uses which they have made of their 
independence, when obtained ! 

- The last illustration with which I shall trouble you 
in proof that freedom cannot exist without intelligence 
and morality in the people is afforded by Sicily. " It is 
well known," says Mr. Lyon, " that, during the course 
of the late war, the island of Sicily was taken possession 
of by Great Britain ; and, with a magnanimity peculiarly 
her own, she resolved to bestow on her new ally that 
form of government, and those laws, under which she 
herself had attained to such a pitch of prosperity and glory. 
Whether the zeal thus manifested to the Sicilians was a zeal 
according to knowledge will immediately appear : but there, 
can be no doubt that the gift was generously, freely, and 
honestly bestowed. 

u The Sicilian government was, therefore, formed exactly 
after the model of the British. The legislative, executive, 
and judicial powers were separated : vesting the first in a 
parliament composed of lords and commons ; the second in 
the king and his ministers ; the last in independent judges. 
Due limits were set to the prerogative, by not permitting 
the sovereign to. take cognisance of bills in progress, or to 
interfere in any way with the freedom of debate or the; 
purity of election. The peerage was rendered respectable by 
making titles unalienable and strictly hereditary, and by 
forbidding the elevation to the peerage of such as were not 
already in possession of a fief to which a title had belonged, 
and whose annual income was not 6,000 ounces of silver " 
(of the value of 12s. 6d. sterling to the ounce) ; or £3,950 a 
year. 

Such is the outline of the constitution given to Sicily by 
the British ; and the result of this experiment is contained 
in the following quotation from " Travels in Sicily, Greece, 
and Albania/' by the Eev. Mr. Hughes : — 

" No words/' says he, "can describe the scenes which 



LECT. XVI.] 



GOVERNMENT, 



187 



daily occurred upon the introduction of trie representative 
system in Sicily. The House of Parliament, neither mode- 
rated by discretion nor conducted with dignity, bore the 
resemblance of a receptacle for lunatics, instead of a council- 
room for legislators ; and the disgraceful scenes, so often 
enacted at the hustings in England, were here transferred 
to the very floor of the Senate. As soon as the president 
had proposed the subject for debate, and restored some 
degree of order from the confusion of tongues which 
followed, a system of crimination and recrimination invari- 
ably commenced by several speakers, accompanied with 
such furious gesticulations and hideous distortions of coun- 
tenance, such bitter taunts and personal invectives, that 
blows generally ensued* This was the signal for universal 
uproar." 

After adverting to the utter profligacy of all ranks of the 
people, Mr. Hughes observes, that "no one will wonder that 
difficulties environed those who endeavoured to resuscitate 
the embers of a patriotism already extinct, and break the 
fetters of a nation who rather chose to hug them ; that civil 
liberty was received w 7 ith an hypocrisy more injurious to its 
cause than open enmity, and that, returning without any 
efforts of the people, it returned without vigour, and excited 
neither talent nor enthusiasm ; that those amongst the. 
higher classes who received it at all, received it like a toy, 
which they played with for a time, and then broke to pieces ; 
and that the populace, having penetration sufficient to dis- 
cover the weakness of their rulers, were clamorous for the 
English authorities to dissolve the whole constitution, and 
take the power into their own hands." 
. From these examples and illustrations, I trust that you 
are now able to distinguish between the independence and 
the freedom of a nation, and are prepared to agree with me 
in opinion that there can be no real freedom without pre- 
valent intelligence and morality among the body .of the 
people. These can be introduced only by education and 
training ; but the general diffusion of property, by giving a 
direct interest to numerous individuals in the maintenance 
of justice, greatly promotes the progress of morality. 
Hence, public enlightenment, morality, and wealth con- 
stitute the grand basis of freedom. 



18S 



LECTURE XVII. 

Different Forms of Government. 

The next topic to which I advert is the different forms of 
government. As long as any nation continues destitute of 
education, and is not devoted to industrious pursuits 
calculated to exercise the moral and intellectual faculties, it 
consists of hordes of human beings in whom the animal 
propensities predominate, and who, in consequence, are 
ready to embark under any bold and energetic leader, in 
any enterprise that promises gratification to individual 
interests and passions, however immoral, or however detri- 
mental to the community. History is one great record of the 
truth of this remark. The only mode of preserving public 
tranquillity, and any semblance of law in such a state of 
society, is for one man or a small number of individuals, 
superior to the rest in vigour, sagacity, and decision, to 
seize on the reins of government, and to rule despoticallj*. 

Men in this condition are animals possessing the human 
form and human intelligence, but not yet the human 
morality which alone causes individuals to love justice and 
become a law unto themselves. If the best and wisest of 
men were requested to devise a government for a nation of 
selfish and ferocious beings, possessed of intellect sufficient 
to foresee consequences, but not inspired with the love of 
justice, he would at once say that it must be one of great 
energy : vigorous to repress and prompt to punish, other- 
wise, there would be no tranquillity. A despotism, there- 
fore, naturally springs up in a very rude and barbarous 
country, and is the form of government best adapted to its 
circumstances. 

The despot rules in the full spirit of the selfish system. 
He punishes through caprice as often as from justice ; and 
he rewards through favouritism more frequently than from 
perception of real merit ; but in doing so, he acts on the 
principles generally prevalent in his community. If he be 
enlightened, just, and beneficent, he may do great service to 
his people by instructing and civilising them ; but as a 
genera] rule he will be found acting, like themselves, on 
the purely selfish principle, obstructing their moral and 



LECT. xvii.] DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 189 



intellectual improvement whenever he discovers that their 
enlightenment will prove fatal to his own authority. 

When a nation has become partially civilised and 
instructed in the arts of industry, wealth is created ; and a 
class arises whose moral and intellectual faculties, developed 
by education, and stimulated by the love of property, 
prompt them to observe the dictates of morality towards 
their fellow-men, and to enjoy the advantages of just 
government themselves : a class which would not join a 
leader to trample the nation at large under foot, but would 
rather, by their wealth and intelligence, assist the people to 
expel a tyrant, and to establish the supremacy of equitable 
laws. But the superior men who constitute this class find 
themselves associated with a mass of uneducated and penni- 
less individuals, who compose the great body of the people. 

The kind of government adapted to a nation composed of 
such elements is obviously one which shall combine the 
force and energy of the despot necessary to repress and 
punish all attempts at individual supremacy and domination, 
and at the same time to enforce order and justice, with a 
due regard to the general welfare. A mixed form of 
government, like the British, in which great executive 
power is committed to the monarch, but in which the en- 
lightened classes, through their representatives in Parlia- 
ment, enact the laws, and also control the executive, by 
granting or withholding the public supplies, is the natural 
result of this state of society. 

The great benefit, I have said, of freedom is, that it tends 
to promote the general welfare; whereas all other forms of 
government, whether despotic, under one supreme prince, or 
oligarchical, under a limited number of nobles, tend to the 
sacrifice of the interests of the many to the advantage of the 
few. In all ages and countries this has been the case, and 
in our own mixed form of government the evil also exists. 

In a former Lecture I endeavoured to point out that an 
hereditary nobility, protected by law in the possession of 
political power and exclusive privileges, without regard to 
individual qualities and attainments, is an infringement of 
the natural laws, and produces evil to the community, not 
only by the abuses of power wdiich it commits, but by the 
misdirection which it gives to the sentiment of ambition in 
the public mind. I now remark that the existence of a 
noble or privileged class is one of the characteristic features 
of a mixed form of government like that of Great Britain, 



190 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XVII. 



and is the natural result of a portion of the people having 
. far outstripped the mass in wealth, intelligence, and refine- 
ment; and it may be expected to endure as long as the 
great inequality in these particulars, on which it is founded, 
exists. 

The mixed form of government itself obviously arises 
when a numerous class has considerably preceded the mass 
of the people in intelligence and moral attainments ; and it 
exhibits the spectacle of that class becoming the sole deposi- 
taries of political power. The upper portion, or nobles, 
exercise the function of legislators directly in their own 
persons, and the inferior portion do so by means of repre- 
sentatives. 

It is the genius of this form of government to confer 
privileges on classes ; and hence, the highest members of the 
ruling body easily induced the king to bestow on them the 
character of nobility and the right of hereditary legislation ; 
but as the great principle of doing to another as we would 
wish another to do to us leads, in its general application, to 
the removal of all distinctions not founded on real 
superiority, the existence of this class becomes, in course of 
time, an obstacle to general improvement. 

There is one principle, however, taught with equal clear- 
ness by Christianity and by the doctrine of the supremacy 
of the moral sentiments— that the only beneficial manner of 
producing a moial equality is by improving and raising up 
the lower, and not by pulling down the higher classes, 
possessed of superior attainments. As long, therefore, as 
the class of nobles are superior in intellect, moral qualities, 
and education to the great body of the people, their 
superiority is real ; and they would maintain this supe- 
riority although they possessed neither titles nor exclusive 
privileges. 

In a former Lecture, I pointed out that hereditary rank 
and superiority are in opposition to Nature unless the or- 
ganic laws are obeyed, and that then statutes are not needed 
to transmit property and honour to posterity. Those who 
transmit high moral, intellectual, and physical qualities to 
their offspring confer on them the stamp of Nature's 
nobility : and they need no other. 

When the Creator bestowed on us Veneration, prompting 
us to reverence high qualities and attainments, and Love of 
Approbation, desiring distinction for ourselves, He must 
have intended that these faculties, in selecting their objects, 



tECT. XVII.] DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 191 

should be guided by reason, morality, and religion ; yet the 
creation of artificial, and especially of hereditary, rank, 
which enables its possessor, independently of his mental 
qualities, to assume superiority over, and to take precedence 
of, other men, even when these are more virtuous, more 
learned, more useful, and more highly accomplished than 
himself, is in direct opposition to this maxim, and must, 
therefore, manifestly be an abuse. 

The grand argument by which this view is defended is 
that, by presenting objects of established respect and con- 
sideration to the people, we accustom them to the practice 
of deference and obedience, and thereby promote the tran- 
quillity of the State. It is argued also that, by instituting 
a class of nobles, a branch of society is formed which will 
cultivate, as their especial province, taste, refinement, and 
all the elegancies of life, and will improve the inferior 
members of the social body by their example. 

It is further maintained that such a class is natural, and 
has existed in almost all countries, and must, therefore, be 
advantageous. In a certain state of society these reasons 
have some weight ; but my position is that when the 
general body of the people becomes enlightened, these ad- 
vantages disappear, and an hereditary nobility becomes a 
positive evil. 

I beg leave, however, to state that I do not propose to 
abolish hereditary and artificial rank by violence, and against 
the will of its possessors. The grand principle which I have 
advocated in these Lectures, that all real improvement must 
proceed from the supremacy of the moral and intellectual 
faculties, forbids such a project. My aim is to render 
nobles ashamed of hereditary titles, decorations, and privi- 
leges, which testify nothing in favour of their merit ; and I 
regard this as undoubtedly practicable in the course of a few 
generations, merely by enlightening their superior faculties. 

If you trace the forms in which Self-Esteem and Love of 
Approbation seek gratification in different stages of social 
improvement, and observe how these approach nearer and 
nearer to reason, in proportion as society becomes enlightened, 
you will not consider this idea chimerical. 

The tattooed skin and the nose transfixed with ornamental 
bones are profoundly respected and greatly prized by the 
savage. These are the external signs of his consequence— 
the outward symbols by which his Self-Esteem and Love of 
Approbation demand, and receive, the homage of inferior men. 



192 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. XVII. 



But a very limited advance in civilisation destroys the il- 
lusion. It is seen that these are mere physical ornaments, 
which bespeak nothing but the vanity of the wearers ; they 
are, therefore, ridiculed and laid aside. 

Ascending to a more retined, yet still barbarous, age, you 
find that the marks of distinction formerly prized in our own 
country were a full-bottomed wig and a cocked hat, ruffles 
at the wrists, a laced waistcoat, and buckles on the shoes. 
A century ago, when a man thus attired appeared in any 
assembly of the common people, place was given to his rank, 
and respect was paid to his dignity, as if he had been of a 
superior nature. 

But when, in the progress of enlightenment, it was dis- 
covered that these outward testimonials of greatness were 
merely the workmanship of barbers and tailors, men who 
enjoyed any real mental superiority, who were distinguished 
by refinement of manners, and the other qualities of a true 
gentleman, became ashamed of them, and preferred to wear a 
plain, yet elegant, attire, and to trust to their own manners 
and the discrimination of the public, for being recognised as 
of superior rank, and being treated accordingly ; and they 
have been completely successful. A gentleman in the 
trappings of the year 1700 appearing in our streets now 
would be regarded as insane, or as facetiously disporting 
himself in order to win a wager. 

The progress of reason which has swept away tattooed 
skins, bone ornaments in the nose, full-bottomed wigs, and 
laced waistcoats, will one day extinguish orders of knight- 
hood, coronets, and all the other artificial means by which 
men at present attempt to support their claims to respect 
and consideration, apart from their personal qualities and 
virtues. They will be recognised by the wearers, as well as 
by the public, as devices useful only to the unworthy. An 
advanced education and civilisation will render men acute 
observers of the real elements of greatness, and profound 
admirers of them, but equally intolerant of tinsel im- 
positions. 

The greatest danger to which the British nobility are at 
present exposed is that which arises from their own im- 
perfect education. While the middle # classes have been 
reforming their schools, colleges, and universities, and have 
been rendering them vehicles, to a greater or a less extent, of 
useful knowledge, based on science and the laws of Nature ; 
and while the working classes have been pursuing the same 



mm. xvn.j blFFEiiEtfF Poems of qoveunment. ids 



course of instructive and elevating study in works of cheap 
literature, the high aristocracy have been clinging to Greek, 
Latiri, History, and Mathematics, as the staple of their in- 
struction, and have been fairly left behind. In the extensive 
and important discussions of social interests which lately 
agitated the country,^ the ignorance of the titled aristocracy 
concerning the natural laws which regulate manufactures, 
agriculture, capital, and commerce, and which, as legislators 
in a commercial country, they were bound to understand, 
became the subject of universal remark ; while the magnitude 
of their antiquated prejudices, and their general incapacity 
for comprehensive, profound, and logical reasoning, struck 
their own educated friends and admirers with dismay. 

Self-Esteem and Love of Approbation exist, and have 
powerful influence. The feelings with which they inspire 
the mind will never be extinguished ; only their direction 
can be changed. When we contemplate the history of the 
world, and perceive what laborious, painful, and dangerous 
enterprises men have undertaken and accomplished, and 
what privations and sufferings they have submitted to, in 
order to obtain the gratification of these two faculties, we 
may form some estimate of the impulse which would be 
given to physical, moral, and intellectual improvement if we 
were withdrawn from the worship of hollow idols, and were 
directed to nobler objects. 

Men will always desire to stand high in rank, to be 
respected, and to be treated with consideration by their 
fellow-men ; but their notions of what constitutes nobility 
and high rank will be elevated as their minds become en- 
lightened. As formerly remarked, under the system of 
Nature, a family would esteem itself noble when it was able 
to show in its genealogy a long line of healthy, handsome, 
refined, moral, intelligent, and useful men and women, with 
few profligates and few imbeciles ; and an individual would 
present before an intelligent public high intellectual attain- 
ments, pure morals, and refined manners, as the foundations 
of his claim to social consideration. 

If you conceive nobles and individuals of high rank and 
remote ancestry animated by such motives, and setting such 
examples before their inferiors, what a powerful impulse 
would be given to improvement, compared with that which 
flows from the present state of opinion, when men, over- 

*The subject was Free Trade and Abolition of the Corn-Laws, 
March, 1846. 
N 



m MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. XVH. 



looking the real elements of greatness, worship the external 
symbols of vanity, and elevate mediocrity, if sufficiently rich, 
to the station which should be held only by the most able, 
the most virtuous, and the most accomplished ! 

We are now prepared to answer the arguments by which 
hereditary rank and artificial nobility are defended, as ad- 
vantageous in the present state of Britain. The first is that 
their existence presents objects of respect to the common 
people, and accustoms them to the practice of deference and 
obedience. 

I reply that the common people respected the decorations 
of rank— the wig, the ruffles, and the waistcoats of the last 
century — only while they were deplorably ignorant ; and, in 
like manner, they will regard with deference and awe, ancient 
titles apart from merit, only while they continue in the same 
condition. The moment they become sufficiently enlightened 
and independent in their moral and intellectual judgments 
to arrive at sound conclusions, they will cease to admire 
hereditary rank without high qualities. 

The second defence of hereditary nobility is that, by 
instituting it, you establish a separate class dedicated to re- 
finement, taste, and elegance, who by their example will 
improve the inferior orders. The answer is, that all these 
qualities are essential elements in Nature's nobility, and 
that after a certain stage of social enlightenment has been 
reached, they will be assiduously cultivated for their own 
sake, and for the distinction which they will confer ; and 
that, therefore, patents of nobility, to preserve individuals 
who lack these high attainments in their minds, in possession 
of the outward advantages generally attending them, are not 
necessary for social welfare. 

The third argument in favour of hereditary and artificial 
rank is that the admiration of it is natural, and has existed 
in all ages and countries, and that it must, therefore, be 
beneficial. I have already explained that the faculties of 
Veneration, Self-Esteem, and Love of Approbation are all 
natural, and that one of their tendencies is to respect and 
esteem ancient descent and superior qualities. The only 
difference between the admirers of things as they are and 
myself consists in this — that they present artificial objects 
to which these faculties may be directed — which objects, 
when examined by reason, are found to be unworthy of en- 
lightened regard ; whereas I propose to have them directed 
only according to reason, to objects pleasing at once to the 



LECT. XVil] DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 195 

understanding, to the moral sentiments, and to these faculties 
themselves ; and beneficial to society. 

I have dwelt on this subject longer than some of you may 
consider to have been necessary ; but the same principles 
have a wide application. They lead us to the conclusion 
that hereditary entails ought also to be abolished. In 
England, an entail is limited to the lives of the heirs in ex- 
istence at the time when it is executed ; but in Scotland it 
may extend to perpetuity, if heirs exist so long. In this 
country an entail is a deed in law executed by the pro- 
prietor of an estate, by which he calls a certain series of 
heirs, without limitation, to enjoyment of the rents, or 
produce, or possession of the land, but without allowing to 
any one of them a right of property in itself. None of them 
can sell the estate, or burden it with debt beyond his own 
lifetime, or give it to a different order of heirs from that 
pointed out in the deed of entail. 

If, for example, the property be destined to heirs-male, the 
present possessor may have a daughter, who is the apple of 
his eye and the treasure of his heart, and may have no 
male relation nearer than a tenth cousin, who may be a profli- 
gate of the most disgraceful description ; but the law is blind 
— the daughter cannot inherit one acre of the vast domain, 
and the remote and unworthy male heir will take it all. 

This, however, is comparatively the least of the evils 
attending entails. Their existence maintains in an artificial 
rank, and in possession of great wealth and influence, indi- 
viduals who, by their natural qualities, ought to stand at the 
bottom of the scale, and who, like the hereditary nobility, 
operate as idols on the minds of the aspiring and rising 
members of the middle and lower ranks, leading them to an 
insensate worship of aristocracy. 

Many persons may imagine that this is a small social evil, 
affecting only the individuals who give way to it, and who, 
they suppose, are not numerous. But it appears to me to be 
of greater magnitude, and to lead to more extensive conse- 
quences. It supports, with the sanction of the law, the erro- 
neous principle of preserving social greatness and influence 
to individuals, independently of their natural qualities : 
which tends directly to encourage all classes to overlook or 
to undervalue natural excellence, and to strive only to attain 
wealth, and to preserve it in their families by the aid of 
legal technicalities, against the law of God and the welfare 
of their fellow-men. 
N 2 



196 MOUAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. xm 



This averting of the general mind from the real principles 
of social improvement, and giving it a false direction, 
appears to be the worst evil attending all artificial systems 
for preserving family distinctions. The class which is thus 
supported has many powerful motives for improvement 
withdrawn from it : it leans upon crutches, and rarely 
exercises its native strength • and, as a natural consequence, 
it looks with an indifferent, if not a hostile, eye on all its 
inferiors who are labouring to attain that excellence which 
itself despises. 

The same arguments which I have now employed against 
artificial ranks and entails apply to all exclusive privileges 
and distinctions conferred by law on individuals or classes, 
independently of their merits. The social institutions of every 
country in Europe have been tarnished more or less by such 
abuses. In France, before the .Revolution, every class of 
the people except the lowest had its exclusive privileges, 
and every town and department had its selfish rights 
of monopoly or exemption, which were maintained with all 
the blind avidity usually displayed by unenlightened 
selfishness. The Revolution swept these away, and made 
all France and all Frenchmen equal in their rights and 
privileges, to the great advantage of the whole nation. In 
our own country, the spirit of reform is busy extinguishing 
similar marks of barbarism, but they are still clung to with 
great affection by the true adherents of the individual 
interest system. 

The real object of this course of Lectures has been to 
show that men must obey the laws of God before they can 
be happy — that one of these laws is that we should love 
our neighbour as ourselves, or, in other words, that in- 
dividual enjoyment is inseparably connected with, and 
dependent on, social welfare ; that to promote the general 
welfare, it is necessary to render all the members of the 
community alive to its improvement, and to withdraw from 
them all artificial means of propping up their individual 
fortunes and rank, independently of virtue ; that hereditary 
titles, entails, and other exclusive privileges of classes and 
individuals are the fortifications in which the selfish prin- 
ciple entrenches itself in order to resist and obstruct 
general improvement, and that, on this account, they should 
be undermined and destroyed. 

I have endeavoured to show that the classes that now 
imagine themselves to be benefited by them would actually 



LECT. xvil] DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 



197 



profit by their abolition, by being directed into the true 
paths of happiness and virtue ; and I propose, by enlight- 
ening their understandings, and elevating the standards of 
public approbation, to induce a voluntary surrender of 
these distinctions, and not a forcible abrogation of them. 
Ages may elapse before these results shall be accomplished, 
but so did many centuries intervene between the painted 
skins and the laced coat ; and so did generations pass away 
between the embroidered waistcoats and our own age ; yet 
our day has come, and so will a brighter day arrive, 
although we may be long removed from the scene before 
it dawns. 

Since the foregoing remarks were written I have lived 
for twenty months in the United States of North America, 
where no hereditary nobility, no privileged classes, and no 
entails exist. It is impossible not to perceive that in their 
absence the higher faculties of the "mind have a freer field 
of action. 

At the same time, truth compels me to remark that, as 
they were abolished in the United States by a sudden 
exercise of power, and as a system of equality was intro- 
duced as the result of a successful revolution, and did not 
arise spontaneously from the cultivation of the public mind 
and the development of the moral and intellectual faculties 
of the people, the democracy of the United States does not 
present all that enlightenment of the understanding, that 
high-minded love of the beneficial and the just, that refine- 
ment of manners and that well-regulated self-control which 
constitute the most valuable fruits of political freedom. 

In the United States, the selfish faculties appear to me to 
be as active and as blind as in Great Britain. The political 
institutions of the country are in advance of the mental 
cultivation of the mass of the people; and the most cheering 
consideration for the philanthropist, in the prospect of the 
future, is the fact that these institutions having given 
supreme power to the people, of which there is no possi- 
bility of depriving them, it is equally the interest and the 
duty of men of all ranks and conditions to concur in 
elevating them in the scale of moral, religious, and in- 
tellectual improvement, so as in time to render them w T orthy 
of their high calling among nations. Much remains to be 
accomplished. 

The great characteristic of the mixed form of government 



198 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XVII. 



is its tendency to promote the interests of the classes who 
wield political power to the injury of the others. Ever 
since Great Britain apparently attained freedom, there has 
been an evident system of legislating for the advantage and 
gratification of the dominant class. The laws of primo- 
geniture, of entails, and of the non-liability of heritable 
property to legacy-duty ; the game-laws, the corn-laws, and 
the heavy duties imposed on foreign timber, are all in- 
stances in which the aristocracy have legislated for them- 
selves at the expense of the people. 

In proportion, again, as the mercantile classes acquired 
political power they followed the same example : they 
induced Parliament to pass Acts for encouraging the 
shipping interests, the fisheries, the linen manufacture, and 
a great variety of other interests, by paying out of the 
public purse direct bounties to those engaged in them, or 
by laying protecting duties, to be paid by the public, on the 
rival produce of foreign nations.* 

The next form of government presented to our considera- 
tion is the democratic, or that in which political power is 
deposited exclusively in the people, and by them delegated 
to magistrates chosen, for a longer or a shorter period, by 
themselves. 

If the world be really governed by God on the principle 
of the supremacy of the moral and intellectual faculties, 
our social miseries must arise from individuals and classes 
pursuing their separate interests, regardless of those of the 
rest of the community ; and in this view, the sooner all 
ranks enjoy political power, the sooner w 7 ill legislation 
assume a truly moral character, and benefit the entire 
nation. 

But, keeping in view the other principle which I have en- 
deavoured to expound — that men are incapable of steadily 
pursuing moral and just objects until their moral and 
intellectual faculties have been well trained and enlightened 
— you will perceive that no nation can become fit for a 
republican form of government until all classes of the 
people have been adequately and nearly equally instructed. 

The ancient republics of Greece and Rome formed no 
exceptions to this rule. They were confined to a very small 
territory, and the citizens of each republic were for many 

* These selfish, erroneous, and prejudicial principles of legislation 
are disavowed by Mr. Cobden and all the enlightened leaders of 
the manufacturing and mercantile classes. — 1846. 



lect. xvii.] DIFFERENT FORMS OF GO VERNMENT. 199 

ages within reach of personal communication with each 
other, so that there existed some degree of equality of 
intelligence among them. Whenever their boundaries be- 
came extensive, their free government ceased, and was 
superseded by despotism. 

But these ancient republics never were moral institutions. 
Their freedom, so far as it existed, resulted from the equal 
balance of selfishness and power in the different classes of 
the community ; or from the rivalry of their different orators 
and leaders, who destroyed each other as they respectively 
attempted to usurp an undue share of authority. The 
people in their assemblies, and the senators in their senates, 
were often guilty of the most unjust and unprincipled 
tyranny over individuals ; and altogether, the boasted 
liberties of Greece and Rome appear only as the concessions 
of equally-matched combatants : always withdrawn when 
equality in the power of aggression and resistance ceased 
to exist. 

The reason of this is obvious. In those States there was 
no true religion, no moral training, no printing-presses, and 
no science of Nature. The great mass of the people were 
ignorant. Their monuments and records which have 
reached us are the works of a few distinguished men who 
arose among them, and who certainly displayed high genius 
in the fine arts, in literature and eloquence ; but these were 
the educated and the talented few. From the very 
necessity of their circumstances, the mass of the people 
must have been profoundly ignorant, the slaves of the 
animal propensities ; and their domestic habits, as well as 
their public conduct, show that this was the case. 

In the middle ages a number of small republics sprang up 
in Italy, and we are dazzled by representations of their 
wealth, magnificence, and freedom. One observation ap- 
plies to them all. They exhibited the dominion of an 
oligarchy over the people, and the ruling classes practised the 
most disgraceful tyranny wherever they were not restrained 
by fear of each other. Most of them ultimately fell before 
the power of the larger monarchies, and are now extinct. 

Switzerland presents a brighter prospect. As it was the 
first country in Europe that acquired freedom, so has it 
longest preserved the blessing. The moral and intellectual 
qualities of < the people fitted them for^ free governments, 
and the Swiss nation constituted itself into a congeries of 
republics, acting in federation, but each independent in its 



200 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. xvii. 



internal administration. In the course of time, power fell 
into the hands of an aristocratic class there, as in Italy ; 
but the native qualities of the Swiss mind seem to have 
warded off the consequences which in other countries 
generally ensued. 

" The members of the Sovereign Council of Bern," we 
are told,* " were elected for life, and every ten years there 
was an election to supply the vacancies that had occurred 
during that period. The councillors themselves were the 
electors ; and as old families became extinct, and as it was 
a rule that there should not be less than eighty families 
having members in the great council, vacancies were 
supplied from new families of burghers." 

Still, the number of families in whose hands the govern- 
ment was vested was comparatively small ; and several 
unsuccessful attempts were made, in the course of the 
eighteenth century, to alter this state of things, and to 
reinstate the assemblies of the body of the burghers. The 
discontent, however, was far from general, and it did not 
extend to the country population. The administration was 
conducted in an orderly, unostentatious, and economical 
manner ; the taxes were few and light. 

" It would be difficult," says the historian Miiller, " to 
find in the history of the world a commonwealth which, for 
so long a period, has been so wisely administered as that 
of Bern. In other aristocracies the subjects were kept in 
darkness, poverty, and barbarism ; factions were encouraged 
amongst them, while justice winked at crime or took bribes ; 
and this was the case in the dependencies of Venice. But 
the people of Bern stood, with regard to their patricians, 
rather in the relation of clients towards their patrons than 
in that of subjects towards their sovereigns.' 5 

In 1815, an aristocratical constitution was given to Bern, 
under the sanction of the allied Powers who dethroned 
Napoleon ; but in 1830, the canton of Bern, and several 
others, again changed their government, and became demo- 
cratic republics. "The new constitution has now (1835) 
been in force for more than three years ; notwithstanding- 
some heart-burnings and party ebullitions, things appear to 
be settling into a regular system, and no act of violence or 
open bloodshed has accompanied the change." 

This account of Bern appears remarkable when compared 

* Penny Cyclopedia, article "Benij" Vol. IV, ? L. 304. 



lect. xvil] DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 201 

with the history of other republics, the ruling factions of 
which, when allowed the privilege of self-election, life- 
tenures of office, and freedom from responsibility, invariably 
became selfish and unprincipled tyrants, converting the laws 
into engines of oppression, and the revenues of the State 
into sources of private gain. I can account for the superiority 
of the Swiss only by the larger endowment of their moral 
and reflecting faculties, which seems to have been a charac- 
teristic feature in the people from a very remote period, 
and which still continues. 

The conclusion which I draw in regard to the republican 
form of government is, that no people is fit for it in whom 
the moral and intellectual faculties are not largely developed, 
and in whom also they are not generally and extensively 
cultivated. The reason is clear. The propensities being all 
selfish, any talented leader who will address himself 
strongly to the interests and prejudices of an ignorant 
people will carry their suffrages to any scheme which he 
may propose, and he will speedily render himself a dictator, 
and them slaves. If there be a numerous dominant class 
equally talented and enlightened, the individuals among 
them will keep each other in check; but they will rule as an 
oligarchy, in the spirit of a class, and trample the people 
under their feet. 

Thus it appears that, by the ordination of Providence, the 
people have no alternative but to acquire virtue and know- 
ledge ; to embrace large, liberal, and enlightened views; 
and to pursue moral and beneficial objects — or to suffer 
oppression. This is another of the proofs that the moral 
government of the world is based on the principle of the 
supremacy of the moral sentiments and the intellect ; for, 
turn where we will, we find suffering linked with selfishness, 
and enjoyment with benevolence and justice, in public as 
well as in private affairs. 

The United States of North America present the best 
example of a democracy which has hitherto appeared in the 
history of the world. Power is there lodged with the entire 
people ; and their magistrates, from the lowest to the 
highest, are truly the delegates of the national authority. 
Yet, in the older States of the Union life and property are 
as secure as in any country in the world, and liberty is 
more complete. 

The founders of American society were moral, religious, 
and industrious men, flying from injustice and oppression ; 



202 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xvn. 



and were, therefore, probably men of the keenest moral and 
religious feelings to be found in the old world at the time 
when they emigrated to America. Their ranks continued 
to be recruited from the industrious and enterprising sons 
of Europe ; and hence, when they threw off the yoke of 
Great Britain, the materiel of the States consisted chiefly 
of minds of the best quality. Since they acquired their 
independence they have continued to advance in education, 
morality, and intelligence. 

In Great Britain and France you will find a greater 
number of highly educated men ; but beside them you will 
perceive countless multitudes of human beings enveloped 
in the profoundest ignorance. In America you will meet 
with few men of such eminent culture and attainments as 
England and France can boast of ; but you will look in 
vain for the masses of uneducated stolidity which are the 
disgrace of Europe. The American people are nearly 
all to some extent educated. The co-existence of the 
greatest freedom, therefore, with the highest general intel- 
ligence, in America, is in harmony with the doctrines which 
I am now endeavouring to expound. 

After enjoying the advantages of personal observation, I 
find that I have over-estimated the attainments of the mass 
of the people in the United States. The machinery for 
education which they have instituted, and which they 
support by taxation or by voluntary contribution, is great 
and valuable, and rather exceeds than falls short of my 
pre-conceived opinions ; but the quality and quantity of 
the education dispensed by it are far inferior to what I had 
imagined. The things taught, and the modes of teaching, in 
the public or common schools which educate the people are 
greatly inferior to what are found in the improved schools 
of Great Britain. 

In regard to the scientific principles of morals, political 
economy, and government, especially as regards the first and 
the second, the people of the United States appear to me to 
be greatly in the dark. At the same time, there are many 
enlightened philanthropists among them who see and de- 
plore this ignorance, and who are labouring assiduously and, 
I have no doubt, successfully, to remove it. The impulse 
towards a higher education is, at this time, strong and 
energetic ; and as the Americans are a practical people, I 
anticipate a great and rapid improvement. 

The great cause of the extravagance and apparent un- 



LECT.xvil] DIFFERENT FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 203 

steadiness of democracy in the United States appears to me 
to be referable to the extreme youth and consequent ex- 
citability and want of experience of the majority of their 
voters. The population doubles itself by natural increase 
every twenty-five years, and hence the proportion of the 
young to the aged is much greater than in European coun- 
tries. The franchise is enjoyed at the age of twenty-one, 
and the majority of their voters are under thirty-five, so 
that the country is governed to a great extent by the 
passion, rashness, and inexperience, instead of by the 
wisdom and virtue of its people. 

The history of the world has shown nations degenerating 
and losing the independence and freedom which they once 
possessed ; and it is prophesied that America will lose her 
freedom and become a kingdom in the course of years ; or 
that her States will fall asunder and destroy one another. 
It is supposed also that the civilised nations of Europe will 
become corrupt, and, through excessive refinement, will 
sink into effeminacy, and proceed from effeminacy to 
ignorance, from ignorance to barbarism, and thence to 
dissolution. 

The principle in philosophy that similar causes, in similar 
circumstances, produce similar effects, admits of no ex- 
ception ; and if modern Europe and the United States of 
America were in the same condition in which the mon- 
archies and republics of the ancient world existed, I should 
at once subscribe to the conclusion. But in the ancient 
governments, the mass of the people, owing to the want of 
printing, never were educated or civilised ; and even the 
attainments of the ruling classes were extremely limited. 
They had literature and the fine arts, but they had no sound 
morality, no pure religion, little science, and very few of 
the useful arts which have resulted from science. 

The national greatness of those ages, therefore, was not 
the growth of the common mind, but arose from the genius 
of a few individuals, aided by accidental circumstances. 
It was like the dominion of France in our own clay, when 
the military talents of Napoleon extended her sway from 
Naples to Moscow, and from Lisbon to Vienna. But, 
resting on no superiority in the French people over the 
people of the conquered nations, it was dissolved in a 
day, even under the eye of the commanding genius that 
had raised it. 

When we apply the history of the past as an index to 



204 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. XVII. 



the events of the future, the condition of like circumstances 
is wanting ; for Europe and the United States are in the 
progress (however slow) of presenting, for the first time in 
the world, the spectacle of an universally educated people ; 
and on this account I do not subscribe to the probability of 
civilisation perishing or of modern nations becoming effe- 
minate and corrupt. _ The discovery of the natural laws, 
and of those of organisation in particular, will guard them 
against this evil. It is true that only a few States in Europe 
have yet organised the means of universally educating the 
people ; but Prussia, France, Holland, and Switzerland 
have done so, and Great Britain is becoming anxious to 
follow their example.* The others must pursue the same 
course, for their own security and welfare. A barbarous 
people cannot exist in safety beside enlightened nations. 

For the same reasons, I do not anticipate the dissolution 
of the union of the States of North America, or that they 
will lose their freedom. They are advancing in knowledge 
and morality, and whenever the conviction becomes general 
that the interests of the whole States are in harmony, 
which they undoubtedly are, the miserable attempts to 
foster the industry of one at the expense of another will be 
given up, and they may live in amity and flourish long, the 
boast of the world, so far as natural causes of dissolution 
are concerned. 

This expectation is founded on the hope that they will 
give a real education to their people : an education which 
shall render them conversant with the great principles 
of morals and political economy; so that they may know 
that there is a power above themselves : that of Nature and 
Nature's God, whose laws they must obey before they can 
be prosperous and happy. I assume also that means will 
be found to expunge the blot and pestilence of slavery from 
their free institutions. t It is a canker which will consume 
the vitals of the Union, if it be not in time eradicated. 
These expectations may appear to some to be bold and 
chimerical ; but truth's triumphs have no limits ; and 
justice, when once recognised as a rule of action, which it 
emphatically is in the institutions of the United States, 
cannot be arrested midway in its career. 

The greatest dangers to the institutions of the United 

* Great Britain has now done so nnder the Education Act, 1870, in 
England, and the Act of 1872 for Scotland.— Ed., 1893. 
t This also has been accomplished.— Ep., 1893, 



fcficT. Xvn.] DIFFERENT PoMMS OF GOVERNMENT. 205 

States are now impending over them. The people are 
young, prosperous, rapidly increasing, and still very im- 
perfectly instructed. The natural consequence is that they 
are rash, impetuous, boastful, and ambitious, and ready to 
rush into contests with other nations about real or imaginary 
interests. Their institutions are calculated to prevent or 
to remove causes of quarrel among themselves, but they 
provide no adequate barriers to their encroachments on 
other nations. 

The extension of their territory may render their bonds 
of union too feeble to hold them together, and ambition 
may ruin a fabric which, under the guidance of morality 
and reason, might endure for ever. Their only chance 
of salvation lies in the success of their efforts to train and 
instruct a rising generation in virtue and knowledge. 

From the principles now laid down, it follows that the 
tendency of all governments in modern time's is to become 
more democratic in proportion as the people become more 
intelligent and moral. Since _ 1831 our own government 
has been much more under the influence of the people than 
at any previous period of our history. Those who feel alarm 
at the march of democracy read history without the lights 
of philosophy. They have their minds filled with the 
barbarous democracies of Greece and Eome and with the 
events of the French Revolution, and they tremble at the 
anticipated rule of an ignorant rabble in Great Britain. 

On the other hand, the only democracy which I anticipate 
to be capable of gaining the ascendency here will be that 
of civilised and enlightened, moral, and refined men ; 
and if the principles which I have expounded be correct, 
that the higher sentiments and the intellect are intended by 
Nature to govern, it will be morally impossible that while 
an enlightened and an ignorant class co-exist, as in Great 
Britain, the ignorant can rule. 

The British aristocracy, by neglecting their own education, 
may become relatively ignorant in comparison with the 
middle classes, and their influence may then decay ; but 
should this happen, it would still be an example of the in- 
telligence of the country bearing the chief sway. In France 
the dominion of the ferocious democrats was short-lived : 
superior class gradually recovered authority, and the Reign 
of Terror never was restored. 

In the ancient democracies there was no enlightened class 
comparable with that of Britain. I regard, therefore, 



206 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XVII. 



the fears of those who apprehend that the still ignorant and 
rude masses of our country will gain political power, and 
introduce anarchy, as equally unfounded with the terror 
that the rivers will one day flow upwards, and spread 
the waters of the ocean over the valleys and the mountains. 
The laws of the moral are as stable as those of the physical 
world. Both maybe shaken for a time by storms or convul- 
sions, but the great elements of order remain for ever un- 
touched, and after the clearing of the atmosphere they are 
seen in all their original symmetry and beauty. 

The result which I anticipate is that education, religion, 
and the knowledge of the natural laws will in time extend 
over all classes of the community till the conviction shall 
become general that the Creator has rendered all our 
interests and enjoyments compatible ; and that then all 
classes will voluntarily abandon exclusive privileges, unjust 
pretensions to superiority, and the love of selfish dominion ; 
and will establish a social condition in which homage will 
be paid only to virtue, knowledge, and utility, and in which 
a pure Christian equality, in so far as human nature is 
capable of realising it, embodying the principle of doing to 
others as we would wish others to do unto us, will univer- 
sally prevail. 

These days may be very distant ; but causes leading to 
their approach appear to me to exist, and to be already 
in operation ; and I hope that, in giving expression to these 
anticipations, I am stating the deductions of a sound philo- 
sophy, and not uttering the mere aspirations of a warm 
imagination. 

At all events, this theory, which places independence, 
freedom, public prosperity, and individual happiness on the 
basis of religion, morality, and intelligence is ennobling in 
itself, and cannot possibly do harm. Indeed, it can 
scarcely disappoint us ; because, however far mankind 
may stop short of the results which I have anticipated, 
and for the realisation of which I allow centuries of 
time, it is certain that every step which they shall advance 
m this career will lead them nearer to happiness, while by 
no other path can they attain to permanent prosperity and 
power. 



20? 



LECTURE XVIII. 

Max as a Religious Being. 

Having discussed the foundation of moral philosophy, the 
duties of man as an individual and as a social being, and 
also the causes of the independence and freedom of nations, 
with the relations of the different forms of government to 
the moral and intellectual conditions of the people, I proceed 
to consider man's duty to God, so far as this can be dis- 
covered by the light of Nature. 

Lord Brougham, in his " Discourse of Natural Theology," 
maintains, with great truth, that natural theology is a branch 
of natural philosophy. His argument is the following : It 
is a truth of physics that vision is performed by the eye 
refracting light, and by making it converge to a focus upon 
the retina. The eye is an optical instrument, which, by 
the peculiar combination of its lenses, and the different 
materials they are composed of, produces vision. Design 
and adaptation are clearly manifested in its construction. 

These are truths in natural philosophy ; but a single step 
converts them into evidences in natural theology. The eye 
must have been formed by a Being possessing knowledge of 
the properties of light, and of the matter of which the eye 
is composed : That Being is no inhabitant of earth ; He is 
superior to man : He is his Maker : He is God. 

Tims, the first branch of natural theology, or that which 
treats of the existence and power of the Deity, rests on the 
same basis with physical science ; in fact, it is a direct in- 
duction from the truths of science. 

The second branch of natural theology treats of the 
duties of man towards God, and of the probable designs of 
the Deity in regard to His creatures. The facts of mental 
philosophy stand in the same relation to this branch in 
which the facts of physical science stand in relation to the 
first branch. By contemplating each mental faculty, the 
objects to which it is related by its constitution, its sphere 
of action, its uses and abuses, we may draw conclusions re- 
garding the Divine intentions in creating our faculties, and 
touching the duty which we owe to God in the employ- 
ment of them. It is obvious that, as God has given us 



203 



MORAL PmtOSOPBT. 



[i£cii\ xvtii. 



understanding able to discriminate the uses and abuses of 
our faculties and moral sentiments, leading us to prefer their 
use : we owe it to Him as a duty to fulfil His intention thus 
obviously expressed in our creation by using our powers 
right, and by not abusing them. 

The second branch of natural theology, like the first, rests 
upon the same foundation with all the other inductive 
sciences ; the only difference being that the one belongs 
chiefly to the inductive science of p/iysics, and the other to 
the inductive science of mind.* This distinction, however, 
is not perfectly accurate ; because the evidence of the 
existence and attributes of God, and also of man's duty 
towards Him, may be found in both of these branches 
of science. 

It has been objected that revelation supersedes the 
necessity of studying natural theology. Dr. Thomas Brown, 
in his Lectures on Moral Philosophy in the University 
of Edinburgh, has furnished a brief, but powerful, answer 
to this objection. "On this subject," says he,f "that com- 
prehends the sublimest of all the truths which man is permit- 
ted to attain, the benefit of revelation may be considered to 
render every inquiry superfluous that does not flow from it. 
But to those who are blessed with a clearer illumination, it 
cannot be uninteresting to trace the fainter lights w 7 hich, in 
the darkness of so many gloomy ages, amid the oppression 
of tyranny in various forms, and of superstition more af- 
flicting than tyranny itself, could preserve, still dimly 
visible to man, that virtue which he was to love, and that 
Creator w T hom he was to adore. Nor can it be without 
profit, even to their better faith, to find all Nature thus con- 
curring as to its most important truths with revelation 
itself ; and every thing, living and inanimate, announcing 
that high and holy One, of whose perfections they have been 
privileged wdth a more splendid manifestation." 

Dugald Stewart, in his " Outlines of Moral Philosophy," 
also treats at considerable length of natural religion. " The 
study of philosophy," says he,! " in all its various branches, 
both natural and moral, affords at every step a new illus- 
tration that the design which we trace in creation indicates 
wisdom, and that it operates in conformity to one uniform 

* See "Lord Brougham's Discourses," 3rd edition, p. 58. His 
argument is not clear, 
t Vol. IV., p. 401. 
I Page 271. 



l£cj?. xviii.] MAN AS A RELIGIOUS BEING. 209 

plan, insomucli that the truths of natural religion gain an 
accession of evidence from every addition that is made to 
the stock of human knowledge." 

I consider the study of natural theology important as 
leading to a sound interpretation of Scripture itself. 
Great differences exist in the interpretations of its 
declarations by different sects ; and as all truth must be 
harmonious, it appears to me that whenever the constitution 
of man and the attributes of the Deity shall be ascertained, 
so far as this is possible, by strictly logical inductions from 
facts correctly observed in Nature, all interpretations of 
Scripture touching these points must be brought into 
harmony with Nature ; otherwise, they will justly be regarded 
as erroneous. Every well-established doctrine in moral 
philosophy and in natural theology, founded on the consti- 
tution of Nature, will be a plumb-line by which to adjust 
interpretations of Scripture. 

The Scriptural doctrine of the corruption of human 
nature, for example, is one on which a vast variety of 
opinions is entertained by Christians. When Scripture is 
interpreted in such a manner as to contradict the sound 
conclusions of reason on subjects which lie within the legiti- 
mate province of reason, such interpretations must be 
powerless, or positively mischievous. The Christian world, 
at present (1846), appears to be in a state of transition. In 
Germany, a large portion of the people, under the guidance 
of Johannes Ronge, have thrown off Roman Catholicism, 
have also rejected the dogmas of the Protestant Churches 
established at the Eeformation, and have adopted Eational- 
istic interpretations of Scripture. 

As a contrast to this movement, a number of the scholars 
of Oxford, under the influence of Dr. Pusey, have gone over 
to the Church of Rome ; while the middle classes in Scot- 
land have abandoned their ancient Presbyterian Church, 
have reared a new one on the same foundation, and embraced 
with fresh fervour the doctrines and opinions of the six- 
teenth century, rejected by the Germans. 

The Rev. Baden Powell, Savilian Professor of Geometry 
in the University of Oxford, in his Work on " The Con- 
nexion of Natural and Divine Truth," says : " Physical 
science is the necessary foundation of natural theology : 
certain of the truths it discloses are warnings against mis- 
taking the purport of Scripture ; and the right use of the 
caution thus inculcated applies widely in the interpretation 
o 



210 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xvm. 



of revelation. Inductive philosophy is subservient both to 
natural and revealed religion. The investigation of God's 
works is an essential introduction to the right reception of 
His Word." 

In like manner, there should be no philosophy that is 
not religious : that is to say, that should not be viewed 
as a chapter of the Creator's great book of revelation, 
addressed to the human understanding in the constitution 
of the universe. 

I proceed, therefore, to consider the subject of natural 
theology without fearing that, if properly conducted, it will 
endanger any other class of truths. 

The first point which I propose to investigate ' relates to 
the foundation of natural religion. I beg of you to observe 
that religion emanates from sentiments or from emotions, 
and that it does not consist of a collection of mere intel- 
lectual conceptions or ideas. The foundations of it lie in 
the faculties of Veneration, Wonder, and Hope. 

A brief explanation will enable you to understand this 
view. War springs originally, not from the human intellect, 
but from the propensities of Combativeness and Destruc- 
tiveness, which give an instinctive tendency to oppose, to 
contend, and to destroy. There are legitimate spheres 
within which these propensities may act beneficially ; but 
when they are too energetic they carry captive the other 
powers, enlist them in their service, and then lead to exten- 
sive destruction and to the horrors of war. Combativeness 
and Destructiveness, operating in savage man with very 
little intellect, produce war in which ambush and cunning, 
clubs, and bows and arrows, are used as the means of 
assault. 

The same propensities, acting in the nations of modern 
Europe, have led to the employment of scientific principles 
in the construction of works of attack and of defence, and 
to the use of cannon, and other ingenious and complicated 
instruments of destruction. Still, Combativeness and De- 
structiveness are the original sources in the human mind 
from which war itself, in all its forms and with all its 
weapons, flows. If these instincts were not possessed, men 
w 7 ould feel no impulse to fight any more than they feel 
an impulse to fly. 

Further, you can readily infer that war will be practised 
by any nation very much in the proportion which Com- 
bativeness and Destructiveness bear in them to the other 



LECT. xvm.] MAN AS A RELIGIOUS BEING. 



211 



faculties. If these propensities preponderate over the moral 
sentiments, the people will be constantly craving for war, 
and seeking occasions for quarrels. If they be very feeble, 
public attention will be directed to other and more peaceful 
pursuits, and contentions will, as far as possible, be avoided. 
If we wish to tame a warlike people to the arts of peace, 
we must try to stimulate their higher faculties, and to 
remove all objects calculated to excite their pugnacious 
propensities. 

Similar observations apply to religion. The foundations 
of religion lie in Veneration, Vvhich instinctively feels 
emotions of reverence and respect ; in Wonder, which 
longs after the new, the astonishing, and the supernatural, 
and which, combined with Veneration, leads us to adore 
an unseen power ; and in Hope, which instinctively looks 
forward in expectation to future enjoyment. These inspire 
man with a ceaseless desire to offer homage to a superior 
Being, to adore Him, and to seek His protection. 

We are informed that, in some tribes of savages, no traces 
of religion have been discovered ; but you will find that in 
them the faculties which 1 have named are extremely weak. 
They are in the same condition in regard to the religious 
feelings that other tribes, in whom Tune and Time are 
deficient, stand in regard to melody ; these have no music, 
in consequence of the extreme feebleness of the related 
faculties in their minds. 

On the other hand, wherever the religions sentiments are 
strong in a people, that nation or tribe will be found to 
be proportionally devoted to religion. If their intellectual 
faculties be feeble — if they have no science and no true 
revelation to direct them — they may be engulfed in super- 
stition ; but superstition is only the religious sentiments 
gone astray. They may be found worshipping stocks and 
stones, reptiles, and idols of the most revolting description ; 
but still, this shows not only that the tendency to worship 
exists in them, but that it may be manifested in great 
vigour when the intellect is feeble or very imperfectly 
informed. It proves also that these sentiments are in 
themselves blind or mere general impulses, which will 
inevitably err, unless directed by an illumination superior 
to their own. 

The religious sentiments may act in combination with 
the propensities or with the moral sentiments. In com- 
bination with the lower feelings, they produce a cold, cruel, 
O 2 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lec*. xvm. 



and selfish faith, in which the votary's chief object is to 
secure the favour of Heaven for himself, while he allots 
endless and nearly universal misery to the rest of mankind. 
In combination with Benevolence and Conscientiousness, 
they lead to a faith in which justice and mercy, truth and 
humility, prevail. 

While religion rests on the sentiments of Veneration, 
Wonder, and Hope, as its foundations, the enlightenment 
of the intellect serves to direct these sentiments to their 
proper objects, but it does not produce them, and therefore 
does not produce religion. It is thus impossible that 
religion itself can be eradicated from the human mind. 

The forms and ceremonies by which the religious senti- 
ments manifest themselves may be expected to vary in 
different ages and in different countries, according to the 
degree of development of the religious, moral, and intel- 
lectual faculties, and to the state of the intellectual cultiva- 
tion of the people ; but these emotions themselves evidently 
glow with a never-dying flame, and man will cease to 
adore only when he ceases to exist. 

It is absurd, therefore, to mistake Churches, articles of 
faith, and Acts of Parliament for the foundations of religion, 
and to imagine that, when these are changed, religion will 
perish. The day was when religion was universally be- 
lieved to rest, for its existence, solely on the decrees of 
Eoman Catholic councils and popish bulls, and when the 
priests assured the world that the moment their Church 
and authority were subverted, religion would be for ever 
destroyed. 

But we have lived to see religion flourishing vigorously 
in nations which disown that authority and that Church. 
If the Churches and articles of faith now prevalent shall 
be changed— of which there is much probability — the ad- 
herents of them will, after the fashion of the priests of 
Borne, proclaim that the doom of religion has been sealed ; 
but all men who are capable of looking at the true founda- 
tion of religious worship, firmly and deeply laid in the 
human faculties, will be unmoved by such alarms. They 
will expect religion to shine forth in ever-brightening 
loveliness and splendour in proportion to the enlighten- 
ment of the public mind ; and they will fear neither infernal 
nor terrestrial foes. 

It would greatly assist the progress of improvement if 
a firm conviction could be carried home to the public mind 



LECT. XVIII.] MAN AS A RELIGIOUS BEING. 



213 



tliat religion has its foundations in the nature of man, 
because many excellent persons might thereby be delivered 
from the blind terrors in which they constantly live, lest 
it should be destroyed ; and the acrimony of contending 
sects also, every one of which identifies its own triumph 
with that of religion itself, might probably be moderated. 

The next question that presents itself is, Whether there 
be any moral or religious duties prescribed to man by 
natural theology 1 In answering this question, moralists 
in general proceed to prove the existence and attributes of 
God, and to infer from them the duties which we owe to 
Him as our Creator, Preserver, and Governor. They regard 
Him as the Mighty God, and us as His lowly subjects, 
bound to fear, tremble, love, and obey Him. 

I entirely concur in this view when applied to doing the 
will of God; but it appears to me that it has often led to 
misconceptions and abuse. Religious duty has, somehow 
or other, come to be too generally regarded (in the spirit, 
at least, in which it is practised, if not in words) as a 
homage rendered to the Divine Being for His own gratifi- 
cation, the neglect of which He will punish, and the per- 
formance of which He will reward. Many persons have a 
notion of the Divine Being somewhat resembling that of 
an earthly sovereign whom they may win and gratify by 
praises and flattery, and from whose favour they may 
expect to receive something agreeable and advantageous 
in return. 

All this is superstition and error, and it partakes too 
much of the character of selfishness. I am aware that 
no rational Christian puts his religious faith and worship 
into the form of such propositions ; but I fear that the 
spirit of them can be too often detected in much of the 
religion of the world. 

It appears to me that the religious service of the Deity 
possesses, under the lights of Nature, a totally different 
character. 

The existence of a Supreme Ruler of the world is, no 
doubt, the first position to be established in natural 
religion ; but the proofs of it are so abundant, so over- 
powering to the understanding, and so captivating to the 
sentiments, that I regard this as the simplest, the easiest, 
and the least likely to be disputed, of all the branches 
of the subject. If reflecting intellect be possessed, we 
can scarcely move, a step jn the investigation of Nature 



211 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xvm. 



without receiving irresistible proofs of Divine agency and 
wisdom. 

I opened the first book embracing natural science that 
came to my hand when composing this lecture. It happened 
to be a number of the Penny Cyclopaedia, which had just 
been sent in by the bookseller ; and I turned up the first 
page that presented itself (p. 151). It chanced to be one on 
bees, and I read as follows : — 

" In many instances, it is only by the bees travelling from 
flower to flower that the pollen, or farina, is carried from the 
male to the female flowers, without which they would not 
fructify. One species of bee would not be sufficient to 
fructify all the various sorts of flowers were the bees of that 
species ever so numerous, for it requires species of different 
sizes and different constructions." 

M. Sprengel found that, "not only are insects indispen- 
sable in fructifying different species of iris, but that some 
of them, as I. Xiphium, require the agency of the larger 
humble bees, which alone are strong enough to force their 
way between the stile-flags ; and hence, as these insects are 
not so common as many others, this iris is often barren, or 
bears imperfect seeds.'' 

This simple announcement proves to my understanding, 
incontestably, the existence and presence of a Deity in 
creation ; because we see here an important end, clearly 
involving design, accomplished by agents altogether un- 
conscious of the service in which they are engaged. The 
bee, performing, all unconsciously to itself, the work of 
fructification of the flowers— and the provision of bees of 
different weights for stile-flags of different strengths — 
bespeak, in language irresistible, the mind and workman- 
ship of an intelligent contriver. 

And who is this contriver ? It is not man. There is only 
one answer possible— it is the Deity ; and one object of His 
selecting such a method for operating may perhaps have 
been, to speak home to the understandings of men concern- 
ing His own presence, power, and wisdom. Nature is 
absolutely overflowing with similar examples. 

But there is another species of proof of the existence of a 
God— that which is addressed to the poetic sentiments of 
man. " The external world," says Mr. Sedgwick, " proves to 
us the being of a God in two ways : by addressing the 
imagination, as well as by informing the reason. It speaks 
to our imaginative and poetic feelings, and they are as 



lect. xviil] MAN AS A RELIGIOUS BEING. 



215 



much, a part of ourselves as our limbs and our organs of 
sense. 

" Music has no charms for the deaf, nor has painting for 
the blind ; and all the touching sentiments and splendid 
imagery borrowed by the poet from the world without 
would lose their magic power, and might as well be pre- 
sented to a cold statue as to a man, were there no pre- 
ordained harmony between his mind and the material beings 
around him. It is certain that the glories of the external 
world are so fitted to our imaginative powers as to give 
them a perception of the Godhead and a glimpse of His 
attributes ; and this adaptation is a proof of the existence of 
God, of the same kind (but of greater or less # power, accord- 
ing to the constitution of our individual minds) with that 
which we derive from the adaptation of our senses to the 
constitution of the material world."* ' 

Assuming, then, the existence of a Deity as demonstrable 
by means of the work of creation, the next question is, 
What can we discover of His character by the exercise of 
our natural faculties ? 

In answering this question, I observe, in the first place, 
that we cannot possibly discover anything from creation 
concerning His person or personal history—if I may use such 
expressions — because there is no manifestation of these in the 
external world. If, for example, we were to present a thread 
of raw silk to an intelligent man, and ask him to discover 
from its physical appearances alone the individual charac- 
teristics of the maker of the thread, he would tell us that it 
is impossible to do so, because the object presented to him 
does not contain one element from which his understanding 
can legitimately infer a single fact in answer to such a 
question. 

In like manner, when we survey earth, air, and ocean, our 
own minds and bodies, and every page of creation that is 
open to us, although we perceive thousands of indications of 
the mental qualities of the Creator, we receive not one ray 
of light concerning His form of being, His personal history, 
residence, or individual nature. All conjectures on this 
subject, therefore, are the offspring either of fancy or of 
superstition. 

But we receive from creation overwhelming proofs of His 

*" Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge," 
pp. 20, 21. 



216 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. xviii. 



mental attributes. In the stupendous mechanism of the 
heavens, in which our sun and the whole planetary system 
are but as one wheel— and that so small that, although 
annihilated, its absence would scarcely be perceptible to an 
eye embracing the universe — we perceive indications of 
power which absolutely overwhelm our imaginations. In 
the arrangements of physical and animal creation, we dis- 
cover proofs of wisdom without limits; and in the endow- 
ment of our own minds, and the adaptation of the external 
world to them, we discover evidence of unbounded goodness, 
intelligence, and justice. 

The inference which I draw from these manifestations of 
the Divine character is this : that God veils from us His 
individual or personal nature, to avert from our minds 
every conception that He stands in need of us, or of our 
homage or services, for His own sake, so that we may have 
neither temptation nor apology for adopting a system of 
worship such as we should address to a being whom we 
desired to flatter or please by our attentions ; and that He 
reveals to us His moral and intellectual attributes, to 
intimate to us that the worship which will meet with His 
approbation is that which will best carry into execution 
His will in that department of creation which is placed 
under the dominion of man as a rational and responsible 
being. 

Now, what is this form of service ? All creation proclaims 
the answer. It is acting in the spirit of the Deity, as 
manifested in His works. If so, natural religion must be 
jwogressive in its principles and duties, in correspondence 
with our increasing knowledge of the will of the Divine 
Being, expressed in His w T orks ; and it really is so. 

Theologians often reproach the religion of Nature with 
darkness and uncertainty. They might as legitimately 
make the same charge against the science and philosophy of 
Nature. Up to a very recent period, indeed, the science of 
Nature was barren ; but the reason was, not that in itself it 
contained no wisdom, nor any elements adapted to the 
profitable use of man, but that man's ignorance was so 
great that he had not discovered how to study that science 
in its right spirit. As soon as Bacon put man into the road 
to study it wisely, natural philosophy became munificently 
productive ; and at this hour its stores continue to yield 
more and more abundant benefits to man, in proportion as 
they are opened up, 



Lect. xviii. ] MAN AS A RELIGIOUS BEING, 



217 



The same history will hereafter be given of natural 
religion. While men were ignorant of every principle of 
science, it was most natural in them to ascribe every isolated 
effect to an isolated power, and to imagine as many deities 
as there were agencies in the world which they could not 
reconcile. They saw the river waters rolling in mighty 
torrents to the ocean, and they imagined a river god as the 
cause. 

They perceived the earth yielding spontaneously fruits, 
and flowers, and herbage of the richest kinds ; they felt the 
bounty of the gifts, and, ignorant of their cause, they 
ascribed them to a goddess, Ceres. They saw the seasons 
change, and the sun, moon, and planets present different 
appearances ; and, deeply impressed with the manifesta- 
tions of power which these orbs displayed, but ignorant of 
the cause, they imagined them to be deities themselves. All 
this was the natural effect of the human faculties operating 
in profound ignorance of physical causation. 

But since science demonstrated that the planets revolve, 
and rivers flow, in virtue of one law of gravitation, we no 
longer ascribe each action to a separate deity, but attribute 
both to one ; and our notions of that one are prodigiously 
enhanced by the perception of a single power extending 
over such mighty intervals of space, and operating in all 
according to one uniform law. 

In proportion, therefore, as we advance in the knowledge 
of creation, we discover proofs of uniformity, combination, 
mutual relationship, and adaptation, that compel the under- 
standing to ascend to one cause, and to concentrate in that 
cause the most transcendent qualities. It is thus that our 
conceptions of the attributes of the Divine Being, drawn 
from Nature, go on increasing in truth, in magnificence, and 
in beauty, in proportion as we proceed in the acquisition of 
knowledge ; and as our rapid progress in it is of recent 
origin, we may well believe that natural religion could not 
earlier have presented much instruction regarding the Deity 
to the understanding or the moral sentiments of man. 

But the reproach is made against natural theology, that it 
is barren also in regard to man's duties. Here the same 
answer occurs. Natural theology teaches that it is man's 
duty to perform aright the part which God has allotted to 
him in creation ; but how could he discover what that part 
was until he became acquainted with himself and with 
creation 1 Natural theology was barren in regard to duties. 



218 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xvin. 



only because the knowledge of Nature, which alone gives it 
form and substance, had itself scarcely an existence in the 
human mind. 

Man had not learned to read the record, and was there- 
fore ignorant of the precepts which it contained. He was 
exactly in the same condition, in regard to natural religion, 
in which most of us would be if we had never received any 
but a Gaelic Bible. The whole doctrines and precepts of 
Christianity might be faithfully recorded, and most ex- 
plicitly set down in it ; but if we could not interpret the 
characters, of what service would the book be to us 1 It 
would be absurd, however, to object against the Bible itself, 
on this account, thatjt is barren of instruction. 

In like manner, whenever we shall have interpreted 
aright the constitution of the human mind and body, the 
laws of the physical world, and our relations to it and to 
God, which constitute the record of our duties, inscribed by 
the Creator in the Book of Nature, we shall find natural 
theology most copious in its precepts, most express in its 
injunctions, and most peremrjtory in its demands of 
obedience. 

I appeal to those of you who have read the " Constitution 
of Man," and have been satisfied with the general truth of 
the principles unfolded, whether you do not perceive these 
to be duties prescribed in the constitution of Nature, by the 
Creator, to parents, with a command as clear and explicit, 
and with a sanction as certain, as if He had opened the 
heavens, and amidst thunders and the shaking of the 
universe, delivered to them the same precepts written on 
monuments of brass 1 

In truth, they are more so ; because the authenticity of 
the tablets of brass, like those of stone, might be disputed 
and denied by sceptics, who have not themselves seen them 
delivered ; while the precepts written in our nature, 
adapted to the constitution of our faculties, and enforced by 
the whole order of creation, stand revealed in a record 
which never decays nor becomes obsolete, and the authen- 
ticity of which no sceptic can successfully deny. 

If the precepts therein contained be neglected by igno- 
rance, or set at defiance by obstinacy, they never are so with 
impunity ; because God, in His providence, sweeps resistlessly 
along in the course which He has revealed, laying in the 
grave the children in whose persons His organic laws have 
been deeply infringed, rendering unhappy those in whom 



lect. XVIII.] MAN AS A RELIGIOUS BEING. 21S 

they have been materially neglected, and rewarding with 
enjoyment only those in whose minds and bodies they have 
been obeyed. 

Every organ of the body and every faculty of the mind 
is a text from which the most valuable lessons in natural 
religion might be drawn : lessons thoroughly adapted to the 
human understanding, true, practical, and beneficial. 
Natural theology at once impresses on us the sanctions 
of the Divinity, and enforces them, by showing that He 
punishes men for their neglect, and rewards them for 
their observance, in the ordinary administration of His 
providence. 

If I am sound in the view which I have laboured to 
establish, that this world really constitutes a great theatre 
of causation, adapted to the animal, moral, and intellectual 
nature of man, so arranged as to admit of his becoming 
prosperous and happy in proportion as he becomes 
thoroughly intelligent and moral— and by no other means : 
what a fertile field of precept for the practice of virtue is 
thus opened up to us ! 

How eloquent, how forcible, how varied, and how instruc- 
tive, may not the teachers of God's law and God's will then 
become, when they shall have the whole book of creation 
opened to them for texts ; when every line shall be clear, 
interesting, and instructive ; and when they shall be able to 
demonstrate, in the consequences which attend the fulfil- 
ment or neglect of their precepts, that they are teaching no 
vain or fanciful theories, but the true wisdom of God ! 

Conceive for one moment how much of useful, interesting, 
nay, captivating instruction might be delivered to a general 
audience by merely expounding the functions, uses, and 
abuses of the various organs of the body necessary to health, 
and of the faculties of the mind, holding up the constitution 
of each as a Divine intimation to man, and the consequences 
of using or abusing each as solemn precepts from the 
Divinity, addressed to his understanding and his moral and 
religious feelings ! 

If these views be well founded, how unproductive of real 
advantage must the preaching and teaching of Christianity 
necessarily be while the duties prescribed by Nature are 
ignorantly neglected ! Nothing appears to be more pre- 
posterous than for human beings to pray, evening and 
morning, to their Maker — " Thy kingdom come. Thy will 
be done in earthy as it is in heaven" ; and all the while to 



220 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xvm. 



close their eyes against perception of the means appointed 
by God for realising His kingdom and doing His will on 
earth ! So far are the dnties prescribed by natural theology 
from being either barren or adverse to Christianity, it 
appears to me that practical Christianity has remained, to 
a great extent, unproductive, misunderstood, and com- 
paratively feeble, in consequence of the dictates of natural 
theology having been unknown and neglected. 

The clerical teachers of mankind in all civilised coun- 
tries are placed at present in a position which few of them 
understand. The theology which constitutes the distinctive 
creed of each sect is scholastic and dogmatical, resting on 
words and interpretations of words based on no natural 
foundation, and unconnected with any natural science. 
The discoveries which have been made since these creeds 
were framed in Astronomy, Geology, and Physiology have 
brought facts concerning physical nature and the nature of 
man to light which were never dreamt of by the authors of 
these formulas of belief, and which yet bear directly on 
their merits. 

A knowledge of these sciences is becoming widely diffused 
among the people, and the effects are already discernible in 
the United States of America, France, and Germany, where 
religious discussion is freely maintained. There the ancient 
formulas are every day falling more and more into dis- 
repute, while no satisfactory substitute for them has yet 
been introduced. This cannot be achieved until the record 
of Nature be honestly and fearlessly contrasted with that of 
Scripture, and until justice be done to both. When will 
the clergy open their eyes to this fact ? 



LECTUBE XIX. 

The Religious Duties of Man. 

I concluded the last Lecture by observing that natural 
theology is in reality extremely prolific in precepts, and 
imperative in enforcing obedience, whenever we know how 
to read the record. In elucidation of this remark, I shall 
now compare the Ten Commandments with the dictates of 
natural theology, and you shall judge for yourselves whether 
the same law is not promulgated in both. In order to see 
the precept, however, in natural theology, be it remembered 
that you must be able to read the record in which it is 
written : that is to say, you must understand the constitu- 
tion of the external world, and that of your own nature, to 
such an extent as to be capable of perceiving what God 
intimates that a rational being, capable of comprehending 
both, should do, and abstain from doing, in consequence of 
that constitution. 

If you are ignorant of this natural record, then the duties 
which it contains will appear to you to be mere fancies or 
gratuitous assumptions ; and the observations which I am 
about to make will probably seem unfounded, if not irre- 
verent. But with every indulgence for the ignorance of 
natural institutions in which the imperfections of our edu- 
cation have left most of our minds, I beg to be forgiven for 
not bowing before the decisions of that ignorance, but to 
be permitted to appeal to the judgment of men possessing 
the most extended knowledge. If there be individuals here 
who have seriously studied natural science, and also the 
structure and functions of the human body and the nature 
and functions of the mind, they have learned to read the 
record of natural theology, and have prepared their minds 
by knowledge to interpret it aright, and to them I address 
the following observations. 

The Ten Commandments are given forth in the Book of 
Exodus, which narrates that they were delivered by God 
Himself to Moses, written on tables of stone. If we find 
that every one of them is written clearly and indelibly 
also in the human constitution, and is enjoined by natural 



222 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XIX. 



religion, this must strengthen the authority of Scripture, 
by showing that Nature harmonises with its dictates. 

The first commandment is — " Thou shalt have no other 
gods before Me." 

This forbids an abuse of Veneration ; and all Nature, when 
rightly understood, proclaims one God, and enforces the 
same commandment. The nations who are lost in super- 
stition and given up to idolatry are profoundly ignorant of 
natural science. In proportion as we become acquainted 
with Nature, the harmony of design and the unity of power 
displayed in the most distant portions of the universe pro- 
claim more and more forcibly the unity of the Designing 
Mind \ and hence the authority of this commandment be- 
comes stronger and stronger as science and natural religion 
advance in their conquests. 

The second — " Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, 
nor serve them," &c. 

This is a repetition or amplification of the same precept. 

Third — " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thyi 
God in vain." 

This is still directed against an abuse of Veneration. As 
soon as the intellect is enlightened by natural religion in 
regard to the real attributes of the Deity, reverence and 
obedience to Him, as prescribed by these commandments, 
are irresistibly felt to be right, and to be conformable to 
the dictates of the natural law, while all irreverence and 
profanity are as clearly indicated to be wrong. 

Fourth — "Kemember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," 
&c. — " In it thou shalt not do any work," &e. 

This enjoins giving rest to the muscular frame on the 
seventh day, that the brain may be able to manifest the 
moral and intellectual faculties with more complete success. 
It ordains also that on that day the moral and intellectual 
faculties shall be exclusively devoted to the study and 
contemplation of God and His works, and to the doing 
of His will. 

Every line of our bodily and mental constitution coincides 
with this precept. The mind depends for its powers of 
acting on the state of the brain ; and if constant muscular 
labour be endured the brain will be inert, and ail our 
moral, religious, and intellectual faculties will become 
obtuse and dull. On the other hand, if we indulge in 
ceaseless mental exertion, we shall exhaust and weary out 
our brains by over-activity, and become at length incapable 



LECT. xix.] THE RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAN. 



223 



of beneficial application to moral and religions duties. 
Thus the obligation to rest in due season is written as 
clearly in our constitution as in the Fourth Commandment. 

Indeed, our natural constitution commands not only an 
extent of repose from labour equal to that prescribed by 
the Commandment, but greatly more. It imposes on us 
the duty of resting from labour several hours every day in 
our lives, and of dedicating them to the study and practice of 
the will of God. The observance, however, which it pre- 
scribes of the seventh day is somewhat different from that 
taught by human interpreters of the Fourth Commandment. 

Our Scottish divines, in general, forbid walking or riding, 
or any other form of exercise and recreation, on Sundays, as 
a contravention of the Fourth Commandment. In our con- 
stitution, on the other hand, God proclaims that while inces- 
sant labour, through its influence on the mental organs, blunts 
our moral, intellectual, and religious faculties, abstinence 
from all bodily exertion, and the practice of incessant 
mental application for one entire day, even on religion, are 
also injurious to the welfare of both body and mind • and 
that on the seventh day there is no exception to the laws 
which regulate our functions on other days. These require 
that air, exercise, and mental relaxation should alternate 
with moral, religious, and intellectual studies. 

Accordingly, natural theology teaches us to transfer a 
portion of the Sunday's rest and holiness to every one of 
the other days of the week, and to permit on the Sundays 
as much of air, exercise, and recreation as will preserve the 
mental organs in the best condition for performing their 
moral, religious, and intellectual duties. 

In the New Testament no express injunction is laid on 
Christians to observe the first day of the week in the same 
manner that the Jews were commanded in the Old Testa- 
ment to observe the last day of the week, or the Sabbath. 
In point of fact, there is no explicit prescription in the New 
Testament of any particular mode of observing the first 
day of the week. While, therefore, all Christian nations 
have agreed in considering themselves not bound by the 
Fourth pornmandment to observe the seventh day, or 
the Jewish Sabbath, they have differed in regard to the 
mode of observing the first day of the week ; and, as the 
Scripture prescribes no definite rule, each nation has 
adopted such forms of observance as appeared to itself 
to be most accordant with the general spirit of Christianity. 



MO&AL PHILOSOPHY. 



[LECT. XlXi 



Thus, in Catholic countries amusements are permitted 
on Sundays after Divine service ; in Scotland, amusements 
and labour, except works of necessity and mercy, are pro- 
hibited. In Scotland, also, Sunday commences at twelve 
o'clock on Saturday night, and ends at twelve o'clock on 
Sunday night. In Massachusetts, on the other hand, dif- 
ferent views are entertained. While Chap. 50, Sects. 1st, 
2nd, and 3rd of the Revised Statutes, prohibits all persons 
from doing any work and from travelling on " the Lord's 
day," Sect. 4th declares that day, for the purposes of these 
sections, "to include the time between the midnight pre- 
ceding and the sun-setting of the said day? 

According to the Scottish law, therefore, Sunday consists 
of twenty-four hours at all seasons of the year ; while 
according to the " Revised Statutes of Massachusetts " it 
consists only of sixteen and a half hours on the 22nd of 
December, and stretches out as the days lengthen, but never 
exceeds nineteen and a half hours at any period. 

Again, in the Revised Statutes of this commonwealth, it 
is declared, by Sect. 5th, "that no person shall be present at 
any game, sport, play, or public diversion, except concerts 
of sacred music, upon the evening next preceding or follow- 
ing the Lord's day/' under the penalty of paying a fine of 
five dollars. In Edinburgh, the best plaj^s and public 
entertainments are brought forth on the " evening next 
preceding the Lord's day," or Saturday evening— and are 
then most numerously attended ; so that in Boston a 
Christian is fined in five dollars for doing on that evening 
what a Christian in Edinburgh is permitted to do without 
any penalty whatever. This shows how far each of these 
States assumes the power to itself of determining what may 
and what may not be done on the first day of the week. 

On the continent of Europe, both Roman Catholics and 
Protestants devote a considerable portion of Sunday to 
recreation. This may be carried, in some instances, too far ; 
but unless the Scriptures abrogate the law written by God 
in our constitution, we in Scotland have erred in the opposite 
extreme. 

The difference between the expounder of the Bible and 
him who unfolds the natural laws is this : the former, when 
he departs from the natural laws, can enforce his interpreta- 
tions of Scripture only by an arm of flesh. If men refuse 
to forego air, exercise, and recreation on the seventh day, 
the priest may refuse them Church privileges, or call in the 



LECT. xix.] THE RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAN. 225 

police to fine and imprison them ; but lie can do no more. 
He cannot change the nature of the mind and body ; nor 
will the Creator punish the people for not acting as 
their teacher desires them, in opposition to the natural 
laws. 

The interpreter of the Book of Nature, on the other hand, 
may wield no arm of flesh ; but he is enabled to point to 
the power of God enforcing the Divine laws, and to demon- 
strate that punishment is inseparably connected with 
infringement, and reward with obedience. The expounder 
of Scripture, who, without inquiring what God has com- 
manded in His natural laws, goes to Parliament, and prays 
for authority to enforce his own interpretation of the Fourth 
Commandment on his country, is met by opposition, ridicule, 
and aversion ; # — he is astonished at what he regards as the 
perverse and irreligious character of legislators, and ascribes 
their conduct to the corruption of human nature. It is the 
arm of the Deity that opposes him. His scheme, in so far 
as it prohibits wholesome recreation, is in opposition to the 
Divine laws written in the nature of man. Nature speaks 
with a thousand tongues ; and his object is baffled by a 
might which he neither sees nor comprehends. 

This appears to me to be the real cause of the bad success 
in Parliament of the Sabbath-observance Bills. They clearly 
conform to Nature in so far as they seek to prohibit com- 
pulsory labour on that day ; but they certainly depart from 
the laws written by God in our constitution when they tend 
to discourage and prohibit that extent of recreation on 
Sundays which a corporeal frame like ours demands, and 
without which the mind cannot put forth its full vigour in 
morals, in religion, or in science. 

When, on the other hand, the expounder of Scripture 
interprets it according to God's law as revealed in Nature, he 
is backed and supported by the whole weight of the Divine 
power and authority in creation, and his precepts become 
irresistible. He needs no Act of Parliament and no police 
to enforce his edicts. The Lord of heaven and earth, who 
proclaimed the law, carries it into execution. 

The Fifth Commandment is — "Honour thy father and 
thy mother," &c. 

This enjoins an exercise of Veneration towards parents. 

* At the time the text was written Sir Andrew Agnew was 
beseeching Parliament to pass a Bill for the better observance of the 
Sabbath. 
P 



226 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XIX. 



Natural theology enforces this precept in the most direct 
and efficacious manner. There is a faculty of Veneration 
prompting us to respect virtue, wisdom, and experience, 
and our parents are among its natural objects. There is, 
however, one modification of it which natural theology 
points outs, not expressed, although implied, in the Fifth 
Commandment : — Parents must render themselves legitimate 
objects of veneration by manifesting superior moral, in- 
tellectual, and religious qualities and attainments before 
they are authorised to expect the sentiment to be directed 
towards them by their offspring. Both Scripture and reason 
require them to do so, and they have no warrant from either 
to exact reverence while they neglect their own duties. 

The Sixth Commandment is — " Thou shalt not kill." 

This forbids an abuse of Destructiveness. In natural 
theology we find that the dictates of Benevolence, Venera- 
tion, and Conscientiousness all conspire with the Command- 
ment in forbidding violence ; and, moreover, Combativeness 
and Destructiveness lend their aid in enforcing the precept, 
because they prompt society to retaliate and slay the killer. 

The Seventh Commandment is — " Thou shalt not commit 
adultery." 

This forbids an abuse of Amativeness. In natural theology 
the whole moral sentiments conjoin in the same prohibition ; 
and they and the intellect carry the restrictions and direc- 
tions greatly further. They prohibit marriages at ages too 
early and too late ; marriages of persons related in blood ; 
of persons who possess imperfect or immoral developments 
of mind ; of individuals while labouring under any great 
constitutional malady. In short, natural theology interdicts 
many abuses of Amativeness not mentioned either in the 
Old or in the New Testament, and it shows its authority in 
the natural laws for its requirements. 

The disregard with which the dictates of natural theology 
in this department are treated is to be traced to profound 
ignorance that God has issued the prohibitions. We are 
not yet accustomed to regard Nature as a revelation of God's 
will, or to direct our conduct by it ; but this is either our 
fault or our misfortune, and it is wrong. 

The Eighth Commandment is — " Thou shalt not steal." 

This forbids an abuse of Acquisitiveness. In natural 
theology, Conscientiousness and the other moral sentiments 
concur in the denunciation of theft, and the intellect points 
out to the culprit that the individuals who are the subjects 



lect. xix.] THE RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAN. 227 

of his depredations will visit him with a treatment which 
must prove painful to himself. 

The Ninth Commandment is— " Thou shalt not bear false 
witness." 

This forbids the action of the other faculties without the 
control of Conscientiousness ; all the moral sentiments pro- 
claim the same prohibition. 

The Tenth Commandment is—" Thou shalt not covet thy 
neighbour's house," &c. 

This forbids an abuse of Acquisitiveness combined with 
Self-Esteem in the form of self-love, seeking gratification at 
the expense of others. Conscientiousness and Benevolence 
are directly opposed to such abuses, and condemn them. 

Thus the precepts contained in the Ten Commandments 
are enforced in natural theology by the dictates of the 
whole moral sentiments, and also by the arrangements of 
the physical and moral worlds, which bring evil on those 
who contravene them. 

Trying these Commandments, then, by the standards of 
natural theology, we see no reason to question their in- 
herently Divine character ; for we find them all written in 
the natural record of the Divine will. 

I may observe, however, that they are not complete as 
rules of duty. Firstly— they clo not forbid, in express 
terms, abuses of Philoprogenitiveness, Self-esteem, Love of 
Approbation, Benevolence, and many other faculties ; and 
secondly, they do not expressly enjoin the direct exercise 
of any faculty except that of Veneration. There is no 
commandment prescribing as a duty the exercise of 
Benevolence, Conscientiousness, and Intellect, or enforc- 
ing legitimate uses of Philoprogenitiveness, Adhesiveness, 
Cautiousness, &c. 

The New Testament far excels the Mosaic law in supply- 
ing these deficiencies. First, Christ forbids the abuses^ of 
a^our faculties ; secondly, He enjoins the active and legiti- 
mate exercise of all of them ; and, thirdly, He clearly pro- 
claims the supremacy of the moral sentiments, or teaches 
the duty of loving our neighbours as ourselves ; and natural 
theology coincides with, and enforces His commands. 

It has been stated as an insuperable objection to these 
views that they entirely exclude the practice of prayer, 
praise, and devotion. If God govern by general and im- 
mutable laws, what, it is asked, is the object or advantage 
of offering Him any homage or service whatever? 
P 2 



228 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. xix. 



I answer this question in the words of Dr. Isaac Barrow : 
" We do not pray to instruct or advise God ; not to tell 
Him news or inform Him of our wants (STe knows them, as 
oar Saviour telleth us, before we ask) ; nor do we pray by 
dint of argument to persuade God, and bring Him to our 
bent ; nor that by fair speech we may cajole Him or move 
His affections towards us by pathetical oration : not for any 
such purpose are we obliged to pray. But for that it 
becometh and behoveth us to do, because it is a proper 
instrument of bettering, ennobling, and perfecting our 
souls ; because it breedeth most holy affections, and pure 
satisfactions, and worthy resolutions ; because it fltteth us 
for the enjoyment of happiness, and leadeth us thither ; for 
such ends devotion is prescribed."* 

I here add the following sentiments expressed in " Theo- 
logical Lectures at Westminster Abbey," by John Heylin, 
D.D., Prebendary of Westminster, and Kector of St. Mary- 
le-Strand.f 

Discoursing " concerning prayer," Vol. I., p. 94, he says : 
" ' Your Father Jcnoiveth what things ye have need of before 
ye ash Him.' These words are highly instructive, and may 
serve to give us a solid and practical knowledge of the true 
nature of prayer. The proper end of prayer is not to inform 
God of our wants, nor to persuade Him to relieve them. 
Omniscient as He is, He cannot be informed. Merciful as 
He is. He need not be persuaded. The only thing wanting 
is a fit disposition on our part to receive His graces. And 
the proper use of prayer is to produce such a disposition in 
us as to render us proper subjects for sanctifying grace 
to work in — or, in other words, to remove the obstacles which 
we ourselves put to His goodness." 

The same view r s were taught by the philosophers of the 
last century. " The Being that made the world," says Lord 
Karnes, "governs it by laws that are inflexible, because they 
are the best ; and to imagine that He can be moved by 
prayers, oblations, or sacrifices to vary His plan of govern- 
ment is an impious thought, degrading the Deity to a level 
with ourselves."^ 

* " First Sermon on the Duty of Prayer." 

f 1749 — Tonson and Draper in the Strand, 46. 

X " Sketches,'' B. III., Sk. 3. ch. iii. § I. St. Augustin states views 
substantially similar in his 130th Epistle " To Proba," quoted in 
" The Church of the Fathers," 1810, p. 260, 



tUtXH. xix.] THE RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF MAN. 229 

The objection that natural theology excludes devotion 
and praise is equally unfounded. It, no doubt, excludes the 
exercise of both for the purpose of gratifying the Creator, 
by expressing to Him our approbation of His works and 
government. But if our moral and religious sentiments 
be deeply penetrated with a sense of our own absolute 
dependence on His power, and with admiration of Hh 
greatness and goodness ; if our intellects be imbued with 
clear perceptions of His wisdom ; if our whole faculties 
flow towards His laws and institutions with the most 
earnest desire to know and to obey them ; and if 
we have been created social beings, so that our souls 
expand in vigour, augment in vivacity, and rise into 
higher sublimity, by acting in concert in the presence 
of each other : it appears to me that every form of wor- 
ship and devotion which shall give expression to these 
states of mind is not only permitted, but is also enjoined, 
by natural religion. 

It teaches us, however, humbly to regard ourselves as 
enjoying a vast privilege and as reaping an unspeakable 
enjoyment in being thus permitted to lift up our minds to 
God ; and it extinguishes the thought as impious and un- 
warrantable that, by our devotions, we can render God 
happier or better ; or pay back His boundless gifts to us. 

Natural theology also discountenances every conception 
of our pleasing God by professions of respect which we do 
not feel, or of propitiating His favour by praises of His laws, 
while we neglect and infringe them. It also teaches that 
the whole of human kind are equally the children of God ; 
because it demonstrates that He has formed after one 
pattern all the nations of the earth, that He governs all by 
the same laws, offers them the same means of happiness, 
and visits them with the same punishments when they 
transgress His statutes. 

Finally, it attaches < no value to opinions, faith, or 
belief, apart from actions ; because it shows that it 
is only by practically doing that which God has 
prescribed in the record of His will that we can reap 
enjoyment or avoid evil. In short, it renders the 2^ rac ' 
tice of our duty a test of the sincerity, and the results 
of that practice a criterion of the soundness of our belief. 
This appears to me to be also the essential character of 
Christianity. 



230 



LECTURE XX. 

OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 

In concluding these Lectures, I beg your attention to a 
denouncement of the whole course of study in which we 
have been engaged, which appeared in the prospectus of 
The Christian Herald* "All sorts of literary machinery, 
newspapers, lectures, treatises, magazines, pamphlets, school- 
books, libraries of knowledge, for use or for entertainment, 
are most diligently and assiduously set in motion, if not for 
purposes directly hostile to the Gospel, at least on the 
theory that men may be made good and happy without the 
Gospel ; nay, though the Gospel were forgotten as an old 
wives' fable. It were well if they who know the wretched 
infatuation of such views were alive to the importance of 
at least attempting to set similar machinery in motion for 
the production of a religious impression." 

The prospectus continues — " It is impossible, even if it 
were desirable, to check the current of cheap popular 
literature ; but it may be possible, through faith and 
prayer, to tarn it more nearly into a right channel." 

The impossibility of checking is here assigned as the 
paramount reason for attempting to direct the current ; 
whence we may infer that these respectable divines would 
have stopped it if they could. Let us inquire, therefore, 
with becoming deference, but with the freedom of men 
who have the privilege of thinking for themselves, into 
the grounds of these opinions and charges. 

Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that the views 
of faith and doctrine entertained by our condemning censors 
are all sound ; and let us suppose an angel to be sent from 
heaven to teach a celestial choral symphony to men, in 
order to prepare them, on entering the realms of bliss, to 
join in the strains of their new abode. This might be con- 
ceived without imagining the angel to create new faculties, 
his object being only to elevate, quicken, and improve 
those that exist in human nature. This would be an 

* The Christian Herald was a cheap weekly periodical, con- 
ducted by members of the Church of Scotland, and devoted exclu- 
sively to religion. The prospectus was issued in January, 1836. 



lect. xx.] OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 



231 



illustration of the relation in which supernatural truths 
would stand to the moral and intellectual faculties of man. 
The truths of Scripture would not create new powers and 
faculties in us ; they would only purify, exalt, and guide 
those that we already possess. 

I observe, further, that in this case those individuals who 
possessed the strongest and the best cultivated faculties of 
Tune and Time would be in the best condition to profit 
by the angelic teacher's instructions ; and I ask whether 
those individuals who enjoy the most vigorous and best 
exercised moral and intellectual faculties will not, by 
parity of reasoning, be best prepared to profit by the 
lessons of Scripture ? 

How would it strike you, then, if the angelic teacher 
were to reproach the human professors of music whom he 
found on earth instructing their pupils in the best music 
which they knew, and teaching them the practice of the 
art, with the offence of treating the Divine symphony as an 
old wives' fable ? 

They might most reasonably answer, " O angel of light, 
we and our pupils are humble men, and we do not enjoy 
the gifts of inspiration. We cannot cause the solemn organ 
to roll forth its pealing strains until we have studied its 
stops, and accustomed our mortal fingers to press its keys. 
We cannot make the dorian flute breathe its soft melodies 
until we have learnt its powers, and practised the delicate 
movements without which it yields only discordant sounds. 
We mean no disrespect to your heavenly air ; but we 
mortal men cannot produce music at all until the mental 
faculties and the bodily organs, ou which musical skill 
depends, have been trained to the art, and we are now 
instructing ourselves in our own humble way. We are 
exercising our mental faculties and our physical powers to 
bring them into a condition to hear, feel, comprehend, and 
execute the exalted duty which you assign to us. 

" Do not, then, reprimand us for acting according to our 
nature • help and encourage us, and you will discover that 
those of us who have most assiduously studied and practised 
our earthly music will most readily and successfully acquire 
your heavenly strains." 

The angel might blush at this reproof. But the simile is 
applicable to the divines who now denounce us, the teachers 
of natural science, as guilty of impiety. The truths of 
Scripture are addressed to the identical faculties with 



232 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. [lect. XX 



which we study human science. They are the same intel- 
lectual powers which judge of the evidence and import of 
Scripture, and of the truths of Chemistry, Geology, and 
Physiology ; and they are the same moral and religious 
sentiments which glow with the love of the God of the New 
Testament and with that of the God of natural religion. 

IN ay, not only are the faculties the same, but their objects 
are the same. There are not two Gods, but one God ; and 
there are not two lines of duty, but one law of obedience 
prescribed in both of the records. Christianity is not 
diffused miraculously in our day ; and _ unless the senti- 
ments and the intellectual powers to which it is addressed 
be previously cultivated by exercise and illuminated by 
knowledge, its communications fall on stony ground, and 
take no root, 

In May, 1835, Mr. Duff, the Indian missionary, told the 
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland that, in con- 
sequence of the minds of the Hindus being entirely de- 
ficient in this previous exercise and training, the Gospel 
appeared to them actually like an old wives' fable. He 
preached it in its purity and its might ; yet it fell dead 
on their ears, and was lost. What remedy did he propose 1 
To do the very thing for which we are now vituperated 
by our reverend pastors : he begged the Assembly to pro- 
vide funds to enable him to teach the rudiments of physical 
science and the elements of useful knowledge to the Hindus, 
to prepare them for comprehending the Gospel. 

And he was right. The elements of science are the truths 
of God adapted by Him to the constitution of the human 
faculties, just as the atmosphere is adapted by Him to the 
human lungs, and the lungs to it. As the lungs are in- 
vigorated by respiring atmospheric air, so are the intellectual 
and moral faculties rendered alert and energetic, and pre- 
pared at once to discriminate and to appreciate truth by 
the study of natural science. 

On the other hand, until the Hindus be so cultivated and 
quickened, they will be the ready dupes of superstition, 
and will not be prepared to reap the full benefit even of 
Christianity. Reflect on the state of Spain, Portugal, and 
Italy, and you will learn the consequences of profound 
ignorance of natural science on the religious condition of 
the people. Gross superstition holds the place of rational 
devotion, and senseless ceremonies are the substitutes for 
practical morality. 



lect. xx.] OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 



233 



Our own population are more enlightened than the people 
of these countries, but they still continue too ignorant of 
natural science, and particularly of the philosophy of mind. 
As neither they nor their clerical teachers appear to give 
due effect to the truth which I am now expounding — that 
Christianity requires cultivated faculties before it can pro- 
duce its full beneficial effects — I beg leave to illustrate this 
proposition a little more in detail. 

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, divines and 
the people at large, both in England and in Scotland, were 
in full possession of the Scriptures. The Reformation w T as 
completed, and printing was in active operation ; yet, in 
these centuries, clergymen sitting as judges condemned old 
women to the flames as witches. What was the cause of 
this barbarity ? At that time there was neither physical 
nor mental science ; the phenomena of Nature were sup- 
posed to be under the influence of magicians, of evil spirits, 
and of the devil ; and these unhappy women, the victims 
of ignorance, cruelty, and superstition, were believed to be 
in league with the powers of darkness. 

It was the dawn of physical science that opened up the 
creation to the human intellect, and revealed it as the 
vast domain of God ; whereas, before that dawn, ignorant 
divines, with the Bible in their hands, had mistaken it for 
the realm of the devil. It was science that delivered the 
clergy and their flocks from the practice of cruelties from 
which the unaided Bible had not sufficed to protect them. 
It is no disparagement to the Bible to say this, because it 
was never intended to supersede the study of God's will 
as revealed in the records of creation ; and, in falling into 
superstition, the clergy and people w T ere suffering the penalty 
of having omitted to discharge that duty to God and to 
themselves. 

Again : when Eome was threatened with cholera, in the 
year 1835, the Pope and cardinals carried a black image of 
the Virgin in solemn procession through the streets ; while 
our public authorities, in similar circumstances, cleaned the 
whole city from filth, purified the alleys and confined 
courts by fumigation, provided wholesome food and clothing 
for the poor, and organised hospitals for the reception of 
the sick. 

What was the cause of this difference of conduct? Will 
our clergy represent the cause of this proceeding of the 
Italians to have been solely their want of the Bible ? This 



234 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. xx. 



may have been one cause ; but it is notorious that both in 
our own country and in Protestant Germany, although the 
laity enjoyed the Scriptures, they continued superstitious, 
fierce, and cruel, until human science dawned on their 
minds, and co-operated with the Bible in developing the 
spirit of Christianity. 

The Soman clergy and people were ignorant of physiology 
and the laws of the animal economy, and their dull minds 
perceived no connection between the disease and the con- 
dition of their bodies. Edinburgh, on the contrary, was 
the seat of an enlightened school of medicine, and her 
leading men discerned the connection between impure 
air, filth, low 7 diet, deficient clothing, and disease of every 
kind. They therefore, although as ignorant as the Pope 
himself of the special causes of the cholera, knew how 
to act in conformity with the general principles of 
health. 

How have w T e come to entertain views so much more 
rational than those of our Roman brethren 1 Not exclu- 
sively by studying the Scriptures, because the Pope and 
cardinals who prescribed that procession certainly possessed 
the Scriptures, although they may have withheld them from 
their flocks ; but by the study of the anatomy and physi- 
ology of the body, and the laws of the animal economy in 
general. It will be admitted that the citizens of Edinburgh 
acted the more purely Christian part in this emergency. 
Yet their superior knowledge of physical science was one 
great cause of their superior Christian practice. 

Why, then, should our clerical guides charge us with 
contempt of the Bible because we teach the people the very 
knowledge which serves to render them willing, able, and 
intelligent co-operators with the plans of Providence in the 
natural world, which guards their minds from becoming the 
slaves of superstition, and which, by cultivating their moral 
and intellectual faculties, renders them apt learners of the 
precepts of Christianity ? 

What, however, does Mental Physiology teach ? It 
teaches the functions, uses, and abuses of each of our 
faculties ; it shows us that the moral and intellectual 
powers are given to guide our inferior feelings ; and it 
informs us that we must observe the organic laws in order 
to preserve our brains in health, otherwise our mental 
powers will be impeded and deranged in their action. It 
leads us, in short, to study ourselves and our relations to 



lect. xx.] OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 



235 



the external world, and to practise the duties thence dis- 
coverable, as acts of obedience to the will of God. 

The result is, that instead of being lost in a mist of vague 
notions of what constitutes sin, and what righteousness, our 
disciples are enabled to distinguish good from evil in the 
uses and abuses of their faculties. Instead of wandering 
amidst dark superstitions, and mistaking the natural im- 
pulses of the propensities for suggestions of the devil, and 
those of the moral and religious sentiments for direct 
influences from heaven, they recognise the true sources 
of both, and use the natural, and, therefore, the most 
successful, means to subdue the former, and to sustain, 
regulate, and direct the latter. They are taught to avoid 
the inconsistency of praying to God for health or other 
benefits, while they blindly neglect every law of physiology 
on which health, or the realisation of their other desires, 
depends. 

We urge the imperative necessity of first obeying God's 
laws of health, established in our constitution, and His 
other natural laws related to the objects prayed for \ and 
then, and then only, of venturing to ask Him for His 
blessing and His benefits. Instead of seeing in the ex- 
ternal world only a vast confusion of occurrences, in which 
sometimes the good triumph, and sometimes the wicked — 
in which the imagination is bewildered, and the moral 
affections are disappointed in not recognising God— they 
are taught to study the different objects and beings in 
Nature ; to trace their relations and laws ; to mark their 
uniformity of action, their beneficial applications, as well 
as their noxious influences ; and to regulate their own 
conduct accordingly. 

Their eyes are thus opened to the magnificent spectacle 
of a world full of the wisdom and goodness of God, specially 
adapted by Him to man's moral and intellectual powers, 
pervaded in every department by an intelligible and efficient 
government, and the whole tending regularly and system- 
atically to favour virtue and to punish vice. They recog- 
nise the duties of temperance and activity— of moral, 
intellectual, and religious cultivation — of affection to kindred 
— of the love of mankind, and of God — and, above all, of 
obedience to God's will — to be engraven on their bodily 
and mental constitutions, and to be enforced by the external 
creation. 

Is it, then, treating the Gospel as an old wives' fable to 



236 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. 



teach, the people such knowledge as this ? Is it " a wretched 
infatuation," on our part, thus to prepare the mind by a 
pure, invigorating, and elevating cultivation to receive, 
profit by, and practise the precepts of that very Gospel 
itself 1 And what are these divines themselves doing ? 

Again, Mental Physiology shows that moral and religious 
sentiments, enlightened by intellect, have been designed to 
guide the inferior faculties of man. By the study of 
Political Economy you will discover that the whole relations 
of the different members of the State, and also of different 
nations, towards each other, uniformly produce good when 
they are framed in accordance with the dictates of these 
superior faculties, and evil and suffering when they deviate 
from them. That is to say, when the laws of any particular 
people approach to the closest conformity with the dictates 
of benevolence and justice, they become most beneficial to 
the whole public body, and when they depart from them, 
they become most injurious. When a nation in its 
treaties and relations with foreign^ States acts on the prin- 
ciples of benevolence and justice, and limits its own 
exactions by these principles, it reaps the greatest possible 
advantages, while it suffers evil in proportion as it attempts 
to gain by selfishness, rapine, force, or fraud. 

These truths, I say, are rendered clear by the combined 
sciences of Mental Physiology, which proves the existence, 
nature, and objects of our moral faculties, and Political 
Economy, which unfolds the effects on human welfare of 
different political, economical, and legislative institutions 
and systems of action. I appeal to every man possessed of 
common understanding whether teachers of such doctrines 
are or are not preparing the public mind for the practical 
development of that grand Christian condition of society in 
which all men shall endeavour to act as brothers, and shall 
love their neighbours as themselves. 

Nay, not only so ; but I request you to consider the futility 
of teaching these sublime precepts to a people left in the 
mazes of selfishness, which is their inevitable condition 
until their minds shall be imbued with the truth that the 
world is actually constituted in harmony with the dictates 
of the moral sentiments of man. 

Your time will not permit me to extend these remarks 
further ; but nothing would be more easy than to trace the 
whole circle of the sciences, and show how each of them, by 
unfolding the will of God in its own department, is, in 



lect. xx.] OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED. 



237 



truth, a pioneer to the practical development of Chris- 
tianity. 

It is true that we do not carry them forward to these 
applications in our lectures, and I presume this is the 
ground of the charge against us. But why do we not do so % 
Because it is the peculiar and dignified province of the 
clergy themselves so to apply them. Would you reproach 
the ploughman who in spring tilled, manured, and sowed 
your field, because he had not in spring also, and with his 
plough for a sickle, reaped the crop ? 

Equally unreasonable and equally unfounded is this 
charge against us. p We are the humble husbandmen, tilling, 
manuring, and sowing the seeds of knowledge in the public 
mind, and to the clergy is allotted the not less important 
charge of tending the corn in its growth and reaping the 
golden harvest. 

The cultivation of the moral nature of a being journeying 
through life on his way to a future state bears the same re- 
lation to his preparation for eternity that tilling and sowing 
in spring bear to the reaping of the fruits of harvest. It is 
clear, then, that if we are cultivating, enlightening, and im- 
proving the mental powers of our audiences for the duties 
imposed on them in this world, we are rendering them also 
fitter for the next ; and that divines should dovetail their 
own instruction with ours, in so far as we disseminate truth, 
and should carry forward the pupils to whom we have 
taught the rudiments of natural knowledge to the full per- 
fection of rational and Christian men. 

Here, then, I conclude this course of Lectures. It has 
embraced a mere sketch or outline of a mighty subject, and 
has been chargeable with many imperfections. I have 
spoken plainly and forcibly what appeared to myself to be 
true. If I have sometimes fallen into error (as what mortal 
is free from liability to err?) I shall be anxious to obtain 
sounder and juster views ; but if I have in other instances 
given a more correct exposition of the order of the Divine 
government of the world and the principles of natural 
religion than you previously possessed, I hope that, trusting 
in the power of truth, you will neither be startled at the 
novelty, nor offended by the consequences, of the ways of 
Providence which I have expounded. 

You have an admirable rule, however, prescribed to you 
for your guidance in the advice given by Gamaliel to the 



238 



MORAL PHILOSOPHY. 



[lect. XX. 



high priest of the Jews. "If this counsel or this work be 
of men, it will come to nought ; but if it be of God, you 
cannot overthrow it 93 (Acts v. 38). If I have truly inter- 
preted to you any of the works, and ways, and laws of the 
Almighty, His arm will give efficacy to my instruction ; if 
I have erred, my words will come to nought : in either 
event truth will triumph, and we shall all become wiser 
and better. 



THE END. 



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Blue Pavilions, The. By Q, Author of "Dead Man's Rock," &c. 6s. 

Bob Lovell's Career. A Story of American Railway Life. By Edward 
S. Ellis- 5s. 

Breechloader, The, and How to Use It. By W. W. Greener. 2s. 

British Ballads. With 275 Original Illustrations. In Two Vols. 15s. 

British Battles on Land and Sea. By James Grant. With about 
600 Illustrations. Three Vols., 4to, £1 7s.; Library Edition, £1 ios. 

British Battles, Recent. Illustrated. 4*0, gs. ; Library Edition, ios. 

Butterflies and Moths, European. With 61 Coloured Plates. 35s. 

Canaries and Cage-Birds, The Illustrated Book of. With 56 Fac- 
simile Coloured Plates, 35s. Half-morocco, £2 5s. 

Carnation Manual, The. Edited and Issued by the National Carnation 
and Picotee Society (Souihern Section). 3s. 6d. 

Cassell's Family Magazine. Yearly Vol. Illustrated, gs. 

Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches of England and Wales. 
Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial. Popular Edition. Two Vols. 25s! 

Celebrities of the Century. Cheap Edition, ios. 6d. 
.Cities of the World. Four Vols. Illustrated. 7s. 6d. each. 

Civil Service, Guide to Employment in the. 3s. 6d. 

Climate and Health Resorts. By Dr Burney Yeo. 7s. 6d. 

Clinical Manuals for Practitioners and Students of Medicine. A 
List of Volumes forwarded post iree on application to the Publishers. 

Colonist's Medical Handbook, The. By E. A. Bakton.M.R.C.S. 2s.*6d. 

Colour. By Prof. A. H. Church. With Coloured Plates. 3s. 6d. 



2G. 5.93 



Selections from Cassell § Company's Publications. 



Columbus, The Career of. By Charles Elton, Q.C. ios. 6d 

Commercial Botany of the Nineteenth Century. 3s. 6d. 

Cookery, A Year's. By Phyllis Browne. 3s. 6d. 

Cookery, Cassell's Shilling. 384 pages, limp cloth, is. 

Cookery, Vegetarian. By A. G. Payne, is. 6d. 

Cooking by Gas, The Art of. By Marie J. Sugg. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. 

Cottaee Gardening, Poultry, Bees, Allotments, Food, House, 

Window and Town Gardens. Edited by W. Robinson, F.L.S., 

Author of "The English Flower Garden." Fully Illustrated. First 

Half-yearly Volume. Cloth, 2s. 6d. 
Countries of the World, The. By Robert Brown, M.A., Ph.D., &c. 

Complete in Six Vols., with about 750 Illustrations. 4to, 7s. 6d. each. 
Cyclopaedia, Cassell's Concise. Brought down to the latest date. With 

about 600 Illustrations. Cheap Edition. 7s. 6d. 
Cyclopaedia, Cassell's Miniature. Containing 30,000 subjects. Cloth, 

2S.6d. ; half-roxburgh, 4s. 
Daughter of the South, A ; and Shorter Stories. By Mrs. Burton 

Harrison. 4s. 

Dickens, Character Sketches from. First, Second, and Third Series. 

With Six Original Drawings in each by F. Barnard. 21s. each. 
Dick Whittington, A Modern. By James Payn. In One Vol., 6s. 
Dog, Illustrated Book of the. By Vero Shaw, B.A. With 28 Coloured 

Plates. Cloth bevelled, 35s. ; half-morocco, 45s. 
Domestic Dictionary, The. Illustrated. Cloth, 7s. 6d. 
Dore Bible, The. With 200 Full-page Illustrations by Dore. 15s. 
Dore Gallery, The. With 250 Illustrations by Dore. 4to, 42s. 
Dore's Dante's Inferno. Illustrated by GustaveDore. With Intro- 
duction by A. J. Butler. Cloth gilt or buckram, 7s. 6d. 
Dore's Milton's Paradise Lost. Illustrated by Dore. 4to, 21s. 
Dr. Dumdny's Wife. A Novel. By Maurus J6kai. 6s. 
Dulce Domum. Rhymes and Songs for Children. Edited by John 

Farmer, Author of " Gaudeamus," &c. Old Notation and Words, 5s. 

N.B. — The words of the Songs in "Dulce Domum" (with the Airs both 

in Tonic Sol-fa and Old Notation) can be had in Two Parts, 6d. each. 
Earth, Our, and its Story. By Dr. Robert Brown, F.L.S. With 

Coloured Plates and numerous Wood Engravings. Three Vols. gs. each. 
Edinburgh, Old and New. With 600 Illustrations. Three Vols. gs. each. 
Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque. By Prof. G. Ebers. 

With 800 Original Engravings. Popular Editioti. In Two Vols. 42s. 
Electricity in the Service of Man. Illustrated, gs. 
Electricity, Practical. By Prof. W. E. Ayrton. 7s. 6d. 
Encyclopaedic Dictionary, The. In Fourteen Divisional Vols., ios.6d. 

each ; or Seven Vols., half-morocco, 21s. each ; half-russia, 25s. 
England, Cassell's Illustrated History of. With 2,000 Illustrations. 

Ten Vols., 4to, gs. each. Revised Edition. Vols. I. to VI. gs. each. 
English Dictionary, Cassell's. Giving definitions of more than 

100,000 Words and Phrases. Cloth, 7s. 6d. Cheap Edition. 3s. 6d. 
English History, The Dictionary of. Cheap Edition, ios. 6d. 
English Literature, Dictionary of. By W. Davenport Adams. 

Cheap Edition, 7s. 6d. ; Roxburgh, ios. 6d. 
English Literature, Library of. By Prof. Henry Morley. Complete 

in Five Vols., 7s. 6d. each- 



Selections from Cassell § Company's Publications. 



English Literature, Morley's First Sketch of. Revised Edition. 7s. 6d. 
English Literature, The Story of. By Anna Buckland. 3s. 6d. 
English Writers. By Prof. Henry Morley. Vols. I. to IX. 5s. each. 
iEsop's Fables. Illustrated by Ernest Griset. Cloth, 3s. 6d. 
Etiquette of Good Society, is. ; cloth, is. 6d. 

Europe, Cassell's Pocket Guide to. Edition for 1893. Leather, 6s. 
Fairway Island. By Horace Hutchinson. With 4 Full-page Plates. 5s. 
Faith Doctor, The. A Novel. By Dr. Edward Eggleston. 6s. 
Family Physician, The. By Eminent Physicians and Surgeons. 

New and Revised Edition. Cloth, 2is. ; Roxburgh, 25s. 
Father Stafford. A Novel. By Anthony Hope. 6s. 
Field Naturalist's Handbook, The. By the Revs. J. G. Wood and 

Theodore Wood. Cheap Edition. 2s. 6d. 
Figuier's Popular Scientific Works. With Several Hundred Illustra- 
tions in each. Newly Revised and Corrected. 3s. 6d. each. 
The Human Race. | Mammalia. | Ocean World. 
The Insect World. Reptiles and Birds. 

World before the Deluge. The Vegetable World. 
Flora's Feast. A Masque of Flowers. Penned and Pictured by Walter 

Crane. With 40 Pages in Colours. 5s. 
Football, The Rugby Union Game. Edited by Rev. F. Marshall. 

Illustrated. 7s. 6d. 
Fraser, John Drummond. By Philalethes. A Story of Jesuit 

Intrigue in the Church of England. 5s. 
Garden Flowers, Familiar. By Shirley Hibberd. With Coloured 

Plates by F. E. Hulme, F.L.S. Complete in Five Series. 12s. 6d. each. 
Gardening, Cassell's Popular. Illustrated. Four Vols. 5s. each. 
George Saxon, The Reputation of. By Morley Roberts. 5s. 
Gilbert, Elizabeth, and her Work for the Blind. By Frances 

Martin. 2s. 6d. 

Gleanings from Popular Authors. Two Vols. With Original Illus- 
trations. 4to, gs. each. Two Vols, in One, 15s. 

Gulliver's Travels. With 88 Engravings by Morten. Cheap Edition. 
Cloth, 3s. 6d. ; cloth gilt, 5s. 

Gun and its Development, The. By W. W. Greener. With 500 
Illustrations. 10s. 6d. 

Health at School. By Clement Dukes, M.D., B.S. 7s. 6d. 

Heavens, The Story of the. By Sir Robert Stawell Ball, LL.D., 
F.R.S., F.R.A.S. With Coloured Plates. Popular Edition. 12s. 6d. 

Heroes of Britain in Peace and War. With 300 Original Illus- 
trations. Cheap Edition. Two Vols., 3s. 6d. each ; or Two Vols, in 
One, cloth gilt, 7s. 6d. 

Hiram Golf's Religion; or, the "Shoemaker by the Grace 01 
God." 2s. 

History, A Foot-note to. Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa. By 

Robert Louis Stevenson. 6s. 
Historic Houses ofthe United Kingdom. Profusely Illustrated. 10s. 6d. 
Hors de Combat ; or, Three Weeks in a Hospital. Founded on 

Facts. By Gertrude & Ethel Armitage Southam. Illustrated. 5s. 
Horse, The Book of the. By Samuel Sidney. With 28 Fac simile 

Coloured Plates. Enlarged Edition. Demy 4to, 35s . ; half-morocco, 45s. 
Houghton, Lord : The Life, Letters, and Friendships of Richard 

Monckton Milnes, First Lord Houghton. By T. Wemyss 

Reid. In Two Vols., with Two Portraits. 32s. 
Household, Cassell's Book of the. Complete in Four Vols. 5s. -ach. 

Four Vols, in Two, half- morocco, 25s. 
Hygiene and Public Health. By B. Arthur Whitelegge, M.D. 7s. 6d. 



Selections from Cassell § Company's Publications. 



India, Cassell's History of. By James Grant. With about 400 

Illustrations. Two Vols., gs. each. One Vol., 15s. 
In-door Amusements; Card Games, and Fireside Fun, Cassell's 

Book of. Che up Eaitiofi. 2s. 
Into the Unknown : A Romance of South Africa. By Lawrence 

Fletcher. 4s. 

"I Saw Three Ships," and other Winter's Tales. By Q, Author of 

"Dead Man's Rock," &c. 6s. 
Island Nights' Entertainments. By R. L. Stevenson. Illustrated, 6s. 
Italy from the Fall of Napoleon I. in 1815 to 1890. By J. W. Probvn. 

Ne%v and Clieaper Edition. 3s. 6d. 
Joy and Health. By Martellius. 3s. 6d. Edition de Luxe, 7s. 6d. 
Kennel Guide, The Practical. By Dr. Gordon Stables, is. 
Khiva, A Ride to. By Col. Fred. Burnaby. is. 6d. 
" La Bella," and Others. Being Certain Stories Recollected by Egerton 

Castle, Author of " Consequences." 6s. 
Ladies' Physician, The. By a London Physician. 6s. 
Lady's Dressing-room, The. Translated from the French of Baroness 

Staffe by Lady Colin Campbell. 3s. 6d. 
Leona. By Mrs. Molesworth. 6s. 

Letts's Diaries and other Time-saving Publications published 

exclusively by Cassell & Company. [A list free on application.) 
Little Minister, The. By J. M. Barrie. One Vol. 6s. 
Locomotive Engine, The Biography of a. By Henry Frith. 5s. 
Loftus, Lord Augustus, The Diplomatic Reminiscences of, 1837- 

1862. With Portrait. Two Vols., 32s. 
London, Greater. By Edward Walford. Two Vols. With about 

400 Illustrations, gs. each. 
London, Old and New. Six Vols., each containing about 200 

Illustrations and Maps. Cloth, gs. each. 
London Street Arabs. By Mrs. H. M. Stanley. Illustrated, 5s. 
Mathew, Father, His Life and Times. By F. J. Mathew. 2s. 6d. 
Medicine Lady, The. By L. T. Meade. In One Vol., 6s. 
Medicine, Manuals for Students of. [A List forwarded post free.) 
Modern Europe, A History of. By C. A. Fyffe, M.A. Complete in 

Three Vols., with full-page Illustrations, 7s. 6d. each. 
Mount Desolation. An Australian Romance. By W. Carlton Dawe. 5s. 

Music, Illustrated History of. By Emil Naumann. Edited by the 
Rev. Sir F. A. Gore Olseley, Bart. Illustrated. Two Vols. 31s. 6d. 

Musical and Dramatic Copyright, The Law of By Edward 
Cutler, Thomas Eustace Smith, and Frederic E. Weatherly, 
Barristers-at-Law. 3s. 6d. 

Napier, Life and Letters of the Rt. Hon. Sir Joseph, Bart., LL.T)., 
&c. By A. C. Ewald, F.S.A. New and Revised Edition, 7s. 6d. 

National Library, Cassell's. In Volumes. Paper covers, 3d. ; cloth, 
6d, (A Complete List of the Volumes post free on application.) 

Natural History, Cassell's Concise. By E. Perceval Wright, 
M.A., M.D., F.L.S. With several Hundred Illustrations. 7s. 6d. 

Natural History, Cassell's New. Edited by Prof. P. Martin- 
Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S. Complete in Six Vols. With about 
2,000 Illustrations. Cloth, gs. each. 



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Nature's Wonder Workers. By Kate R. Lovell. Illustrated 3s. 6d. 
Nursing for the Home and for the Hospital, A Handbook ot. 

By Catherine J. Wood. Cheap Edition, is. 6d. ; cloth, 2s. . 
Nursing of Sick Children, A Handbook for the. By Catherine 

J. Wood. 2s. 6d. 
O'Driscoll's Weird, and other Stories. By A. Werner. 5s. 
Odyssey, The Modern ; cr, Ulysses up to Date. Cloth gilt, 10s. 6d. 
Ohio, The New. A Story of East and West. By Edward Everett 

Hale. 6s. 

Oil Painting, A Manual of. By the Hon. John Collier. 2s. 6d. 
Orchid Hunter, Travels and Adventures of an. By Albert 

Millican. Fully Illustrated. 12s. 6d. 
Our Own Country. Six Vols. With 1,200 Illustrations. 7s. 6d. each. 
Out of the Jaws of Death. By Frank Barrett. In One Vol., 6s. 
Painting, The English School of. Cheap Edition. 3s. 6d. 
Painting, Practical Guides to, With Coloured Plates :— 



Marine Painting. 5s. 
Animal Painting. 5s. 
China Painting. 5s. 
Figure Painting. 7s. 6d. 
Elementary Flower Paint- 
ing. 3s. 



Tree Painting. 5s. 
Water-Colour Painting. 5s. 
Neutral Tint. 5s. 
Sepia, in Two Vols., 3s. each ; or 

in One Vol., 5s. 
Flowers, and How to Paint 

Them. 5s. 



Peoples of the World, The. In Six Vols. By Dr. Robert Brown; 

Illustrated. 7s. 6d. each. 
Perfect Gentleman, The. By the Rev. A. Smythe-Palmer, D.D. 3s. 6d. 
Phillips, Watts, Artist and Playwright. By Miss E. Watts 

Phillips. With 32 Plates. 10s. 6d. 
Photography for Amateurs. By T. C. Hepworth. Enlarged and 

Revised Edition. Illustrated, is. ; or cloth, is. 6d. 
Phrase and Fable, Dictionary of. By the Rev. Dr. Brewer. Cheap 

Edition, Enlarged, cloth, 3s. 6d. ; or with leather back, 4s. 6d. 
Physiology for Students, Elementary. By A. T. Schofield, M.D., 

M.R.C.S., &c. Illustrated. 7s. 6d. 
Picturesque America. Complete in Four Vols., with 48 Exquisite Steel 

Plates and about 800 Original Wood Engravings. £2 2S. each. 
Picturesque Canada. With 600 Original Illustrations. Two Vols. £6 6s. 

the Set. 

Picturesque Europe. Complete in Five Vols. Each containing 
13 Exquisite Steel Plates, from Original Drawings, and nearly 200 
Original Illustrations. Cloth, £21; half-morocco, £31 10s. ; morocco 
gilt, £52 10s. Popular Edition. In Five Vols., 18s. each. 

Picturesque Mediterranean, The. With Magnificent Original Illustrations 
by the leading Artists of the Day. Complete in Two Vols. £2 2s. each. 

Pigeon Keeper, The Practical. By Lewis Wright. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. 

Pigeons, The Book of. By Robert Fulton. Edited and Arranged by 
L. Wright. With 50 Coloured Plates, 31s. 6d. ; half-morocco, £2 2s. 

Pity and of Death, The Book of. By Pierre Loti. Translated by 
T. P. O'Connor, M.P. 5s. 

Playthings and Parodies. Short Stories by Barry Pain. 5s. 

Poems, Aubrey de Vere's. A Selection. Edited by J. Dennis. 3s. 6d. 

Poetry, The Nature and Elements of. By E. C Stedman. 6s. 

Poets, Cassell's Miniature Library of the. Price is. each Vol. 

Portrait Gallery, The Cabinet. First, Second, and Third Series, each con- 
taining 36 Cabinet Photographs of Eminent Men and Women. With 
biographical Sketches. 15s. each. 



Selections from Cassell § Co?npanys Publications. 



Poultry Keeper, The Practical. By L. Wright. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. 
Poultry, The Book of. By Lewis Wright. Popular Edition. 10s. 6d. 
Poultry, The Illustrated Book of. By Lewis Wright. With Fifty 

Coloured Plates. New and Revised Edition. Cloth, 31s. 6d. 
Queen Summer ; or, The Tourney of the Lily and the Rose. With Forty 

Pages of Designs in Colours by Walter Crane. 6s. 
Queen Victoria, The Life and Times of. By Robert Wilson. Com- 
plete in Two Vols. With numerous Illustrations, as. each. 
Rabbit-Keeper, The Practical. By Cuniculus. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. 
Raffles Haw, The Doings of. By A. Conan Doyle. 5s. 
Railway Guides, Official Illustrated. With Illustrations, Map?, &c. 
Price is. each ; or in cloth, 2s. each. 



Great Eastern Railway. 
Great Northern Railway. 
London, Brighton and South 

Coast Railway. 
London and North-Western 

Railway. 
Rovings of a Restless Boy, The. 

trated. 5s. 

Railway Library, Cassell's. Crown 8vo, boards, 2s. each 



Great Western Railway. 
London and South-Western 

Railway. 
Midland Railway. 
South-Eastern Railway. 
By Katharine B. Foot, lllus- 



METZEROTT, SHOEMAKER. By KATH- 
ARINE P. Woods. 
David Todd. By David Maclure. 
The Astonishing History of Troy 

TOWN. By O. 

The Admirable Lady Biddy Fane. 

By Frank Barrett, 
commodore j ink. by g. manville 

Fenn. 

St. Cuthbert's tower. By Flor- 
ence Warden. 

The Man with a Thumb. By Bar- 
clay North. 

By Right not Law. By R. 
Sherard. 

Within Sound of the Weir. By 
Thomas St. e. Hake. 

Under a Strange Mask. By Frank 
Barrett. 

The coombsberrow Mystery. By 
James Colwall. 

Dead Man's Rock. By O. 

A Oueer Race. By W. West all. 

Captain Trafalgar. By Westall 
and Laurie. 



The Phantom City. By w. Westall. 
Jack Gordon, Knight Erf ant, 

Gotham, 1883. By Barclay 

North. 

The Diamond Button. By Barclay 
North. 

Another's Crime. By Julian Haw- 
thorne. 

The Yoke of the Thorah. By 

Sidney Luska. 
Who is John noman? By Charles 

henry Beckett. 
The Tragedy of Brinkwater. By 

Martha l. Moodey. 
An American Penman. By Julian 

Hawthorne. 
Section 558; or, the Fatal Letter. 

By Julian Hawthorne. 
The Brown Stone Boy By w. H. 

Bishop. 

A Tragic Mystery. By Julian 

Hawthorne. 
The great Bank Robbery. By 

Julian Hawthorne. 



Redgrave, Richard, C.B., R.A. Memoir. Compiled from his Diary. 

By F. M. Redgrave. 10s. 6d. 
Rivers of Great Britain : Descriptive, Historical, Pictorial. 

The Royal River : The Thames, from Source to Sea. Popular 
Edition, 16s. 

Rivers of the East Coast. With highly finished Engravings. 
Popular Edition, 16s. 

Robinson Crusoe, Cassell's New Fine-Art Edition of. With 
upwards of 100 Original Illustrations. 7s. 6d. 

Romance, The World of. Illustrated. Cloth, 9s. 

Russo-Turkish War, Cassell's History of. With about 500 Illus- 
trations. Two Vols. 9s. each. 

Salisbury Parliament, A Diary of the. By H. W. Lucy. Illustrated 
by Harry Furniss. 21s. 

Saturday Journal, Cassell's. Yearly Volume, cloth, 7s. 6d. 

Scarabseus. The Story of an Africau Beetle. By the Marquise Clara 
Lanza and James Clarence Harvey. Cloth, 5s. 



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Science for All. Edited by Dr. Robert Brown. Revised Edition. 

Illustrated. Five Vols. gs. each. 
Science, The Year Book of. Edited by Prof. Bonney, F.R.S. 7s. 6d. 
Sculpture, A Primer of. By E.Roscoe Mullins. With Illustrations. 2s.6d. 
Sea, The: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, and Heroism. 

By F. Whymper. With 400 Illustrations. Four Vols. 7s. 6d. each. 
Shadow of a Song, The. A Novel. By Cecil Harley. 5s. 
Shaftesbury, The Seventh Earl of, K.G., The Life and Work of. By 

Edwin Hodder. Cheap Edition. 3s. 6d. 
Shakespeare, The Plays of. Edited by Professor Henry Morley. 

Complete in Thirteen Vols., cloth, 21s. ; half-morocco, cloth sides, 42s. 
Shakespeare, Cassell's Quarto Edition. Containing about 600 Illus- 
trations by H. C. Selous. Complete in Three Vols., cloth gilt, £3 3s. 
Shakespeare, Miniature. Illustrated. In Twelve Vols., in box, 12s.; 

or in Red Paste Grain (box to match), with spring catch, 21s. 
Shakspere, The International. Edition de Luxe. 

" KING HENRY VIII." Illustrated by Sir James Linton, P.R.I. 
{Price on application.} 

"OTHELLO." Illustrated by Frank Dicksee, R.A. £3 10s. 

" KING HENRY IV." Illustrated by Eduard Grutzner. £3 10s. 

"AS YOU LIKE IT." Illustrated by Emile Bayard. £3 10s. 

"ROMEO AND JULIET." Illustrated by F. Dicksee, R.A. know 
out of print, and scarce. 
Shakspere, The Leopold. With 400 Illustrations. Cheap Edition. 

. 3s. 6d. Cloth gilt, gilt edges, 5s. ; Roxburgh, 7s. 6d. 
Shakspere, The Royal. With Steel Plates and Wood Engravings. 

Three Vols. 15s. each. 
Sketches, The Art of Making and Using. From the French of 

G. Fhaipont. By Clara Beli . With 50 Illustrations. 2s. 6d. 
Smuggling Days and Smuggling Ways ; or, The Story of a Lost 

Art. By Commander the Hon. Henry N. Shore, R.N. With 

numerous Plans and Drawings by the Author. 7s. 6d. 
Snare of the Fowler, The. By Mrs. Alexander. In One Vol., 6s. 
Social Welfare, Subjects of. By Sir Lyon Playfair, K.C.B. 7s. 6d. 
Sports and Pastimes, Cassell's Complete Book of. Cheap Edition. 

With more than qoo Illustrations. Medium 8vo, 992 pages, cloth, 3s. 6d. 
Squire, The. Bv Mrs. Parr. In One Vol., 6s. 
Standard Library, Cassell's. Cloth, 2s. each. 



Shirley. 
Ooningsby. 
Mary Barton. 
Tne Antiquary. 
Nicholas Nickleby 

(Two Vols.). 
Jane Eyre. 
Wuthering Heights. 
Dombey and Son 

(TwoVoJs.). 
The Prairie. 
Night and. Morning. 
Kenilworth. 
Ingoldsby Legends, 
Tower of London. 
The Pioneers. 
Charles O'Malley. 
Barnaby Budge. 
Cakes and Ale. 
The King's Own. 
People I have Met. 
The Pathfinder. 
Evelina. 
Scott's Poems. 
Last of the Barons. 



Adventures of Mr. 

Ledbury. 
Ivanhoe. 
Oliver Twist. 
Selections from Hood's 

Works. 
Longfellow's Prose 

Works. 
Sense and Sensibility. 
Lytton's Plays. 
Tales, Poems, and 

Sketches. Bret Harte. 
Martin Chuzziewit 

(Two Vols.). 
The Prince of the 

House of David. 
Sheridan's Plays. 
Uncle Tom's Cabin. 
Deerslayer. 
Borne and the Early 

Christians. 
The Trials of Mar- 
garet Lyndsay. 
Harry Lorrequer. 
Eugene Aram. 
By Sir R. S. Ball, LL.D., &c. 



Jack Hinton. 
Poe's Works. 
Old Mortality. 
The Hour and the Man. 
Handy Andy. 
Scarlet Letter. 
Pickwick (Two Vols.). 
Last of the Mohicans. 
Pride and Prejudice. 
Yellowplush Papers. 
Tales of the Borders. 
Last Day ; of Palmyra. 
Washington Irving's 

Sketch-Book. 
The Talisman. 
Bienzi. 

Old Curiosity Shop. 
Heart of Midlothian. 
Last Days of Pompeii. 
American Humour. 
Sketches by Boz. 
Macaulay's Lays and 



Star-Land. By Sir R. S. Ball, LL.D., &c. Illustrated. 6s. 
Storehouse of General Information, Cassell's. With Wood Engrav- 
ings, Maps, and Coloured Plates. In Vols., 5s. each. 



Selections from Cassell § Company's Publications. 



Story of Francis Cludde, The. By Stanley J. Weyman. 6s. 

Story Poems. For Young and Old. Edited by E. Davenport. 3s. 6d. 

Successful Life, The. By An Elder Brother. 3s. 6d. 

Sybil Knox : or, Home Again : a Story of To-day. By Edward 

E. Hale,' Author of " East and West," &c. 6s. 
Teaching in Three Continents. By W. C. Grasby. 6s. 
Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas. 

By Elizabeth B. Custer. Illustrated. 5s. 
Thackeray, Character Sketches from. Six New and Original Draw- 
ings by Frederick Barnard, reproduced in Photogravure. 21s. 
The " Short Story" Library. 



Noughts and Crosses. By Q. 5s. 
Ottothe Knight, &e. By Octave 

Thankt. 5s. 
Fourteen to One, &c. By Eliza- 
beth Stuart Phelps. 5s. 



Eleven Possible Cases. By Various 

Authors. 6s. 
Felicia. By Miss FannyMurfree. 5s. 
The Poet's Audience, and Del.lah. 
By Clara Savile Clarke. " 



The "Treasure Island" Series. Cheap Illustrated Editions. Cloth, 
3s. 6d. each. 

King Solomon's Mines. By H. I The Splendid Spur. Bv O. 

Rider Haggard. | The Master of Ballantrae. By 

Kidnapped. By R. L. Stevenson. Robert Louis Stevenson. 

Treasure Island. By Robert The Black Arrow. By Robert 
Louis Stevenson. Louis Stevenson. 

Tiny Luttrell. By E. W. Hornung, Author of " A Bride from the Bush." 

Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, Two Vols. 21s. 
Trees, Familiar. By G. S. Boulger, F.L.S. Two Series. With 40 

full-page Coloured Plates by W. H. J. Boot. 12s. 6d. each. 
M Unicode": the Universal Telegraphic Phrase Book. Desk or 

Pocket Edition. 2s. 6d. 
United States, Cassell's History of the. By the late Edmund 

Ollier. With 600 Illustrations. Three Vols. 9s. each. 
Universal History, Cassell's Illustrated. Four Vols. gs. each. 
Verses Grave and Gay. By Ellem Thorneycroft Fowler. 3s. 6d. 
Vision of Saints, A. By Lewis Morris. Edition de Luxe. With 20 

Full-page Illustrations. 21s. 
Waterloo "Letters. Edited by Major- General H. T. Sibornk, late 

Colonel R.E. With numerous Maps and Plans of the Battlefield. 21s. 
Wild Birds, Familiar. By W. Swaysland. Four Series. With 4c 

Coloured Plates in each. 12s. 6d. each. 
Wild Flowers, Familiar. By F. E. Hulme, F.L.S., F.S.A. Five 

Series. With 40 Coloured Plates in each. 12s. 6d. each. 
Wood, Rev. J. G., Life of the. By the Rev. Theodore Wood. 

Extra crown 8vo, cloth. Cheap Edition. 5s. 
Work. The Illustrated Journal for Mechanics. Vol. IV., for 1893, 6s. 6d. 
World of Wit and Humour, The. With 400 Illustrations. 7s. 6d. 
World of Wonders. Two Vols. With 400 Illustrations. 7s. 6d. each. 
Wrecker, The. By Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne. 

Illustrated. 6s. 
Yule Tide. Cassell's Christmas Annual, is. 

Zero, the Slaver : A Romance of Equatorial Africa. By Lawrence 
Fletcher. 4s. 



ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINES. 
The Quiver. Enlarged Series. Monthly, 6d. 
Cassell's Family Magazine. Monthly, 7d. 
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The Magazine of Art. Monthly, is. 

" Chums." Illustrated Paper for Boys. Weekly, id. ; Monthly, 6d. 
CasselVs Saturday iToumal. Weekly, id. ; Monthly, 6d. 
Work. Weekly, id.'; Monthly, 6d. 
Cassell's Complete Catalogue, containing- particulars of upwards r 
One Thousand Volumes, will be sent post tree on application. 
CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, Ludgate Hill, London. 



Selections from Cassell & Compa?iys Publications. 



|}ibks attir fteUgtous tSStmrka. 

Bible, Cassell's Illustrated Family. With goo Illustrations. Leather, 

gilt edges, £2 10s. 
Bible Educator, The. Edited by the Very Rev. Dean Plumptre, D.D., 

With Illustrations, Maps, &c. Four Vols., cloth, 6s. each. 
Bible Student in the British Museum, The. By the Rev. J. G. 

Kitchin, M.A. New and Revised Edition, is. 4d. 
Biblewomen and Nurses. Yearly Volume. Illustrated. 3s. 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Illustrated throughout. Cloth, 3s. 6d. ; 

cloth gilt, gilt edges, 5s. 
Child's Bible, The. With 200 Illustrations. 150^ Thousand, 7s. 6d. 
Child's Life of Christ, The. With 200 Illustrations. 7s. 6d. 
"Come, ye Children." Illustrated. By Rev. Benjamin Waugh. 5s. 
Conquests of the Cross. With numerous Illustrations. Complete in 

Three Vols. 9s. each. 
Dore Bible. With 238 Illustrations by Gustave Dor£. Small folio, 

best morocco, gilt edges, £15. Popular Edition. With 200 Illus- 
trations. 15s. 

Early Days of Christianity, The. By the Ven. Archdeacon Farrar, 
D.D., F.R.S. Library Edition. Two Vols., 24s. ; morocco, £2 2s. 
Popular Edition. Complete in One Volume, cloth, 6s.; cloth, gilt 
edges, 7s. 6d. ; Persian morocco, 10s. 6d. ; tree-calf, 15s. 

Family Prayer-Book, The. Edited by Rev. Canon Garbett, M.A., 
and Rev. S. Martin. Extra crown 4to, cloth, 5s. ; morocco, 18s. 

Gleanings after Harvest. Studies and Sketches by the Rev. John R. 
Vernon, M.A. Illustrated. 6s. 

•'Graven in the Rock." By the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kinns, F.R.A.S., 

Author of " Moses and Geology." Illustrated. 12s. 6d. 
"Heart Chords." A Series of Works by Eminent Divines. Bound in 

cloth, red edges, One Shilling each. 
MY BIBLE. By the Right Rev. W. BOYD 

Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon. 
MY FATHER. By the Right Rev. ASH- 
TON OXENDEN, late Bishop of Mont- 
real. 

My Work for God. By the Right 

Rev. Bishop COTTERILL. 
MY Object in Life. By the Ven. 

Archdeacon FARRAR, D.D. 
MY ASPIRATIONS. By the Rev. G. 

MATHESON, D.D. 
MY EMOTIONAL LIFE. By the Rev. 

Preb. CHADWICK, D.D. 
MY BODY. By the Rev. Prof. W. G. 

BLAIKIE, D.D. 



My Growth in Divine Life. By the 
Rev. Preb. REYNOLDS, M.A. 

MY SOUL. By the Rev. P. B. POWER, 
M.A. 

MY HEREAFTER. By the Very Rev. 

Dean BlCKERSTETH. 
MY WALK WITH GOD. By the Very 

Rev. Dean MONTGOMERY. 
MY AIDS TO THE DIVINE LIFE. By 

the Very Rev. Dean BOYLE. 
MY SOURCES OF STRENGTH. By the 

Rev. E.E.JENKINS, M.A., Secretary 

of Wesleyan Missionary Society. 



Helps to Belief. A Series of Helpful Manuals on the Religious 
Difficulties of the Day. Edited by the Rev. Teignmouth Shore, M.A., 
Canon of Worcester. Cloth, is. each. 



CREATION. By Dr. H. Goodwin, the late 
Lord Bishop of Carlisle. 

The Divinity of Our Lord. By 
1 the Lord Bishop of Derry. 

THE MORALITY OF THE OLD TESTA- 
MENT. By the Rev. Newman 
Smyth, D.D. 



MIRACLES. By the Rev. Brownlow 

Maitland, M.A. 
Prayer. By the Rev. T. Teignmouth 

Shore, M.A. 
THE ATONEMENT. By William Connor 

Magee, D.D., Late Archbishop of 

York. 



ioly Land and the Bible, The. By the Rev. C. Geikie, D.D., LL.D. 
(Edin.). Two Vols., 24s. Iltustrated Edition, One Vol., 21s. 



5 b. 5-93 



Selections from Cassell Company's Publications. 



Lectures on Christianity and Socialism. By the Right Rev. Alfred 
Barry, D.D. Cloth, 3s. 6d. 

Life of Christ, The. By the Ven. Archdeacon Farrar, D.D., F.R.S. 
Library Edition. Two Vols. Cloth, 24s. ; morocco, 42s. Cheap 
Illustrated Edition. Cloth, 7s. 6d. ; cloth, full gilt, gilt edges, 
10s. 6d. Popular Edition, in One Vol., 8vo, cloth, 6s. ; cloth, 
gilt edges, 7s. 6d. ; Persian morocco, gilt edges, 10s. 6d. ; tree-calf, 15s. 

Marriage Ring, The. By William Landels, D.D. New and 
Cheaper Edition. 3s. 6d. 

Morning and Evening Prayers for Workhouses and other Institutions. 
Selected by Louisa Twining. 2s. 

Moses and Geology ; or, The Harmony of the Bible with Science. 
By the Rev. Samuel Kinns, Ph.D., F.R.A.S. Illustrated. New 
Edition on Larger and Superior Paper. 8s. 6d. 

My Comfort in Sorrow. By Hugh Macmillan, D.D. is. 

New Light on the Bible and the Holy Land. By B. T. A. Evetts, 
M.A. Illustrated. 21s. 

New Testament Commentary for English Readers, The. Edited 
by the Rt. Rev. C. J. Ellicott,' D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester 
and Bristol. In Three Volumes. 21s. each. Vol.1. — The Four Gospels. 
Vol. II. — The Acts, Romans, Corinthians, Galatians. Vol. III. — The 
remaining Books of the New Testament. 

New Testament Commentary. Edited by Bishop Ellicott. Handy 
Volume Edition. St. Matthew, 3s. 6d. St. Mark, 3s. St. Luke, 
3s. 6d. St. John, 3s. 6d. The Acts of the Apostles, 3s. 6d. Romans, 
2s. 6d. Corinthians I. and II., 3s. Galatians, Ephesians, and Philip- 
pians, 3s. Colossians, Thessalonians, and Timothy, 3s. Titus, 
Philemon, Hebrews, and James, 3s. Peter, Jude, and John, 3s. 
The Revelation, 3s. An Introduction to the New Testament, 3s. 6d. 

Old Testament Commentary for English Readers, The. Edited 
by the Right Rev. C J. Ellicott, D.D., Lord Bishop of Gloucester 
and Bristol. Complete in Five Vols. 21s. each. Vol. I. — Genesis to Num- 
bers. Vol. II. — Deuteronomy to Samuel II. Vol. HI. — Kings I. to 
Esther. Vol. IV. — Job to Isaiah. Vol. V. —Jeremiah to Malachi. 

Old Testament Commentary. Edited by Bishop Ellicott. Handy 
Volume Edition. Genesis, 3s. 6d. Exodus, 3s. Leviticus, 3s. 
Numbers, 2s. 6d. Deuteronomy, 2s. 6d. 

Protestantism, The History of. By the Rev. J. A. Wylie, LL.D. 
Containing upwards of 600 Original Illustrations. Three Vols. gs. each. 

Quiver Yearly Volume, The. With about 600 Original Illustrations. 
7s. 6d. 

Religion, The Dictionary of. By the Rev. W. Benham, B.D. 

Cheap Edition. 10s. 6d. 
St. George for England ; and other Sermons preached to Children. By 

the Rev. T. Teignmouth Shore, M.A., Canon of Worcester. 5s. 
St. Paul, The Life and Work of. By the Ven. Archdeacon Farrar, 

D.D., F.R.S., Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the Queen. Library Edition. 

Two Vols., cloth, 24s. ; calf, 42s. Illustrated Edition, complete 

in One Volume, with about 300 Illustrations, £1 is. ; morocco, £2 2s. 

Popular Edition. One Volume, 8vo, cloth, 6s. ; cloth, gilt edges, 

7s. 6d. ; Persian morocco, 10s. 6d. ; tree-calf, 15s. 
Shall We Know One Another in Heaven ? By the Rt. Rev. J, C. 

Ryle, D.D., Bishop of Liverpool. Cheap Edition. Paper covers, 6d. 
Signa Christi. By the Rev. James Aitchison. 5?. 
"bunday," Its Origin, History, and Present Obligation. By the 

Ven. Archdeacon Hessey, D.C.L, Fifth Edition. 7s. 6d. 
Twilight of Life, The. Words of Counsel and Comfort for the 

Aged. By the Rev. John Ellerton, M.A. is. 6d. 



Selections from Cassell % Company* s Publications. 



(Bimcatinttai Wmrks attir ^tu&ents* JHamtais. 

Agricultural Text-Books, Cassell's. (The "Downton" Series.) Edited 
by John Wrightson, Professor of Agriculture. Fully Illustrated, 
2s. 6d. each. Farm Crops. — By Prof. Wrightson. Soils and 
Manures.— By J. M. H. Munro, D.Sc. (London), F.I.C., F.C.S. 
Live Stock.— By Prof. Wrightson. 

Alphabet, Cassell's Pictorial. 3s. 6d. 

Arithmetics, The Modern School. By George Ricks, B.Sc Lond. 

With Test Cards. {List on application.) 
Atlas, Cassell's Popular. Containing 24 Coloured Maps. 2S. 6d. 
Book-Keeping. By Theodore Jones. For Schools, 2s. ; cloth, 3s. 

For the Million, 2S. ; cloth, 3s. Books for Jones's System, 2s. 
Chemistry, The Public School. By J. H. Anderson, M.A. 2s. 6d. 
Classical Texts for Schools, Cassell's. {A List post free on application.} 
Cookery for Schools. By Lizzie Heritage. 6d. 
Copy-Books, Cassell's Graduated. Eighteen Books. 2d. each. 
Copy-Books, The Modern School. Twelve Books. 2d. each. 
Drawing Copies, Cassell's Modern School Freehand. First Grade, 

is. ; Second Grade, 2s. 
Drawing Copies, Cassell's " New Standard." Complete in Fourteen 

Books. 2d., 3d., and 4d. each. 
Energy and Motion. By William Paice, M.A. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
Euclid, Cassell's. Edited by Prof. Wallace, M.A. is. 
Euclid, The First Four Books of. New Edition. In paper, 6d. ; cloth, gd. 
Experimental Geometry. By Paul Bert. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
French, Cassell's Lessons in. New and Revised Edition. Parts I. 

and II., each 2s. 6d. ; complete, 4s. 6d. Key, is. 6d. 
French- English and English-French Dictionary. Entirely New 

and Enlarged Edition. 1,150 pages, 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d. 
French Reader, Cassell's Public School. By G. S. Conrad. 2s.6d. 
Gaudeamus. Songs for Colleges and Schools. Edited by John Farmer. 

5s. Words only, paper covers, 6d. ; cloth, gd. 
German Dictionary, Cassell's New (German-English, English- 
German). Cheap Edition. Cloth, 3s. 6d. 
Hand-and-Eye Training. By G. Ricks, B.Sc. 2 Vols., with 16 Coloured 

Plates in each Vol. Cr. 4to, 6s. each. Cards for Class Use, 5 sets, is. each. 
Historical Cartoons, Cassell's Coloured. Size 45 in. x 35 in., 2s. 

each. Mounted on canvas and varnished, with rollers, 5s. each. 
Historical Course for Schools, Cassell's. Illustrated throughout. 

I. — Stories from English History, is. II. — The Simple Outline of 

English History, is. 3d. III.— The Class History of England, 2s. 6d. 
Latin Dictionary, Cassell's New. (Latin-English and English- Latin.) 

Revised by J. R. V. Marchant, M.A., and J. F. Charles, B.A. 

Cloth, 3s. 6d. 

Latin Primer, The First. By Prof. Postgate is. 

Latin Primer, The New. By Prof. J. P. Postgate. Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d. 

Latin Prose for Lower Forms. By M. A. Bayfield, M.A. 2s. 6d. 

Laundry Work (How to Teach It). By Mrs. E. Lord. 6d. 

Laws of Every-Day Life. By H. O. Arnold-Forster, M.P. is. 6d. 

Special Edition on Green Paper for Persons with Weak Eyesight. 2S. 
Little Folks' History of England. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
Making of the Home, The. By Mrs. Samuel A. Barnett. is. 6d. 
Map-Building Series, Cassell's. Outline Maps prepared by H. O. 

Arnold-Forster, M.P. Per Set of Twelve, is. 
Marlborough Books :— Arithmetic Examples, 3s. French Exercises, 

3s. 6d. French Grammar, 2s. 6d. German do., 3s. 6d. 
Mechanics and Machine Design, Numerical Examples in Practical. 

By R. G. Blaine, M.E. New and Revised Edition. With 69 Diagrams. 

Cloth, 2S. 6d r 



Selections from Casscll § Company s Publications. 

Mechanics for Young Beginners, A First Book of. By the Rev. 
J. G. E aston, M.A. 4s. 6d. m m _ 

11 Model Joint" Wall Sheets, for Instruction in Manual Training. By 
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Natural History Coloured Wall Sheets, Cassell's New. 18 
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Object Lessons from Nature. By Piof. L. C. Miall, F.L.S. Fully 
Illustrated. New and Enlarged Edinon. Two Vols., is. 6d. each. 

Perspective, The Principles of. By G. Tkobridge. Illustrated. Paper, 
is. 6d. ; cloth, 2s. 6d. 

Physiology for Schools. By A. T. Schofield, M.D., M.R.C.S., &c. 
Illustrated. Cloth, is. gd. ; Three Parts, paper covers, 5d. each ; or 
cloth limp, 6d. each. 

Poetry Readers, Cassell's New. Illustrated. 12 Books, id. each; or 
complete in one Vol., cloth, is. 6d. 

Popular Educator, Cassell's NEW. With Revised Text, New Maps, 
New Coloured Plates, New Type, &c. In 8 Vols., 5s. each; or in 
Four Vols., half-morocco, 50s. the set. 

Readers, Cassell's "Higher Class." {List on application.') 

Readers, Cassell's Readable. Illustrated. {List o?i application.) 

Readers for Infant Schools, Coloured. Three Books. 4d. each. 

Reader, The Citizen. By H. O. Arnold-Forster, M.P. Illustrated, 
is. 6d. Also a Scottish Edition, cloth, is. 6d. 

Reader, The Temperance. By Rev. J. Dennis Hird. Cr. 8vo, is. 6d. 

Readers, The " Modern School" Geographical. {List on application.) 

Readers, The "Modern School." Illustrated. {List on application.) 

Reckoning, Howard's Anglo-American Art of. By C. Frusher 
Howard. Paper covers, is. ; cloth, 2s. New Edition, 5s. 

Round the Empire. By G. R. Parkin. Fully Illustrated, is. 6d. 

Science Applied to Work. By J. A. Bower, is. 

Science of Everyday Life. By J. A. Bower. Illustrated, is. 

Shade from Models, Common Objects, and Casts of Ornament, 
How to. By W. E. Sparkes. With 25 Plates by the Author. 3s. 

Shakspere's Plays for School Use. 5 Books. Illustrated. 6d. each. 

Spelling, A Complete Manual of. By J. D. Morell, LL.D. is. 

Technical Manuals, Cassell's. Illustrated throughout : — 

Handrailing and Staircasing, 3s. 6d. — Bricklayers, Drawing for, 3s. — 
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Projection. — The Two Vols, in One, 3s. 6d. — Machinists and Engineers, 
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by Sir R. S. Ball, LL.D., 2S. — Systematic Drawing and Shading, 2S. 

Technical Educator, Cassell's. Revised Edition. Four Vols. 5s. each. 

Technology, Manuals of. Edited by Prof. Ayrton, F.R.S., and 
Richard Wormell, D.Sc, M.A. Illustrated throughout : — 
The Dyeing of Textile Fabrics, by Prof. Hummel, 5s. — Watch and 
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F.C.S., M.I.C.E., &c, 5s.— Spinning Woollen and Worsted, by W. S. 
B. McLaren, M.P., 4s. 6d.— Design in Textile Fabrics, by T. R. Ashen- 
hurst, 4s. 6d. — Practical Mechanics, by Prof. Perry, M.E., 3s. 6d. — 
Cutting Tools Worked by Hand and Machine, by Prof. Smith, 3s. 6d. 

Things New and Old ; or, Stories from English History. By 
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in Cloth. Standards I. & II., gd. each; Standard III., is.; 
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This World of Ours. By H. O. Arnold-Forster, M.P Illusd. 3 s. 6d. 



Selections from Cassell § Company's Publicatio?is. 



looks for |)mtttg fpenpk. 



"Little Folks" Half- Yearly Volume. Containing 432 4to pages, with 

about 200 Illustrations, and Pictures in Colour. Boards, 3s. 6d. ; cloth, 5s. 
Bo-Peep. A Book for the Little Ones. With Original Stories and Verses. 

Illustrated throughout. Yearly Volume. Boards, 2s.6d. ; cloth, 3s. 6d. 
Bashful Fifteen. By L. T. Meade. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. 
The Peep of Day. Cassell's Illustrated Edition. 2s. 6d. 
Maggie Steele's Diary. By E. A. Dillwyn. 3s. 6d. 
A Bundle of Tales. By Maggie Browne (Author of "Wanted— a 

King," &c), Sam Browne, and Aunt Ethel. 3s. 6d. 
Fairy Tales in other Lands. By Julia Goddard. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. 
Pleasant Work for Busy Fingers. By Maggie Browne. Illustrated. 5s. 
Born a King. By Frances and Mary Arnold-Forster. (The Life of 

Alfonso XIII., the Boy King of Spain.) Illustrated, is. 
Cassell's Pictorial Scrap Book. In Six Sectional Vols., paper boards, 

3S«. 6d. each. 

Schoolroom and Home Theatricals. By Arthur Waugh. Illus- 
trated. 2S. 6d. 

Magic at Home. By Prof. Hoffman. Illustrated. Cloth gilt, 5s. 
Little Mother Bunch. By Mrs. Molesworth. Illustrated. Cloth, 3s. 6d. 
Pictures of School Life and Boyhood. Selected from the best Authors. 

Edited by Percy Fitzgerald, M.A. 2s. 6d. 
Heroes of Every-day Life. By Laura Lane. With about 20 Full- 
page Illustrations. Cloth. 2S. 6d. 
Books for Young People. Illustrated. Cloth gilt, 5s. each. 
The Champion of Odin; or, 
Viking Life in the Days of 
Old. By J. Fred. Hodgetts. 

Under Bayard's Banner. By Henry Frith. 
Books for Young People. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. each. 



Bound by a Spell; or, The Hunted 
Witch of the Forest. By the 
Hon. Mrs. Greene. 



*The White House at Inch Gow. 

By Mrs. Pitt. 
*A Sweet Girl Graduate. By L. T. 

Meade. 

•The King's Command: A Story 
for Girls. By Maggie Symington. 
Lost in Samoa. A Tale of Adven- 
ture in the Navigator Islands. By 
Edward S. Ellis. 
Tad; or, " Getting Even ? ' with 
Him. By Edward S. Ellis. 
*The Palace Beautiful. By L. T. 
Meade. 

*Also procurable in superior binding, 
Cheap Editions, 
By C, 



*Polly : A New-Fashioned Girl. By 
L. T. Meade. 



"Follow My Leader." By Talbot 
Baines Reed. 
#The Cost of a Mistake. By Sarah 
Pitt. 

*A World of Girls: The Story of 

a School. By L. T. Meade. 
Lost among White Africans. By 

David Ker. 
For Fortune and Glory: A Story of 
the Soudan War. By Lewis 
Hough. 

each. 



Crown 8vo Library. 

Rambles Round London. 

L. Mateaux. Illustrated. 
Around and About Old England. 

By C. L. Mateaux. Illustrated. 
Paws and Claws. By one of the 

Authors of " Poems written for a 

Child." Illustrated. 
Decisive Events in History. 

Bv Thomas Archer. With Original 

Illustrations. 
The True Robinson Crusoes. 

Cloth gilt. 
Peeps Abroad for Folks at Horn?. 

Illustrated throughout. 



Gilt edges, 2S. 6d. each. 
Wild Adventures in Wild Places. 
By Dr. Gordon Stables, R.N. Illus- 
trated. 

Modern Explorers. By Thomas 
Frost. Illustrated. New and Cheaper 
Editio?i. 

Early Explorers. By Thomas Frost. 

Home Chat with our Young Folks. 
Illustrated throughout. 

Jungle, Peak, and Plain. Illustrated 
throughout. 

The England of Shakespeare. By 
E. Goadby. With Full-page Illus- 
trations. 



Selections from Cassell § Company's Publications, 



The "Cross and Crown" Series. Illustrated. 2s.6d. each. 



Freedom's Sword: A Story of the 

Days of Wallace and Bruce. 

By Annie S. Swan. 
Strong to Suffer: A Story of 

the Jews. By E. Wynne. 
Heroes of the Indian Empire; 

or, Stories of Valour and 

Victory. By Ernest Foster. 
In Letters of Flame : A Story 

of the Waldenses. By C. L. 

Matdaux. 



Through Trial to Triumph. By 

Madeline B. Hunt. 
By Fire and Sword: A Storv of 

the Huguenots. By Thomas 

Archer. 

Adam Hepburn's Vow: A Tale of 
Kirk, and Covenant. By Annie 
S. Swan. 

JSTo. XIII.; or. The Story of the 
Lost VestaL A Tale of Early 
Christian Days. By Emma Marshall. 



* Golden Mottoes " Series, The. Each Book containing 208 pages, with 
Four full-page Original Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 2s. each, 
the 



" Nil Desperandum." By 
Rev. F. Langbridge, M.A. 

"Bear and Forbear." By Sarah 
Pitt. 

"Foremost if I Can." By Helen 
Atteridge. 

Cassell's Picture Story Books. 
Pictures and Stories, &c. 6d. 



Honour is my Guide." By Jeanie 

Hering (Mrs. Adams-Acton). 
Aim at a Sure End." By Emily 

Searchfield. 
He Conquers who Endures." By 
the Author of "May Cunningham's 
Trial," &c. 

Each containing about Sixty Pages of 
each. 



Little Talks. 
Bright Stars. 
Nursery Toys. 
Pet's Posy. 
Tiny Tales. 



Daisy's Story Book. 
Dot's Story Book. 
A Nest of Stories. 
G-ood-Night Stories. 
Chats for Small Chatterers. 



Auntie's Stories. 
Birdie's Story Book. 
Little Chimes. 
A Sheaf of Tales. 
Dewdrop Stories. 



Cassell's Sixpenny Story Books. All Illustrated, and containing 
Interesting Stories by well-known writers. 



The Smuggler's Cave. 
Little Lizzie. 
Little Bird, Life and Adven- 
tures of 
Luke Barnieott. 



The Boat Club. 
Little Pickles. 
The Elehester College Boys. 
My First Cruise. 
The Little Peacemaker; 



The Delft Jug. 

Cassell's Shilling Story Books. All Illustrated, and containing Interest- 
ing Stories. 



Bunty and the Boys. 
The Heir of Elmdale. 
The Mystery at Shoncliff 
School. 

Claimed at Last, and Boy's 

Reward. 
Thorns and Tangles. 
The Cuckoo in the Robin's Nest. 
John's Mistake. 
The History of Five Little 

Pitchers. 
Diamonds in the Sand. 



Surly Bob. 
The Giant's Cradle. 
Shag and Doll. 
Aunt Lucia's Locket. 
The Magic Mirror. 
The Cost of Revenge. 
Clever Frank. 
Among the Redskins. 
The Ferryman of Brill. 
Harry Maxwell. 
A Banished Monarch. 
Seventeen Cats. 



Illustrated Books for the Little Ones. Containing interesting Stories. 
All Illustrated, is. each ; cloth gilt, is. 6d. 
Firelight Stories. 
Sunlight and Shade. 
Rub-a-Dub Tales. 
Fine Feathers and Fluffy Fur. 



Scrambles and Scrapes. 
Tittle Tattle Tales. 
Up and Down the Garden, 
AD. Sorts of Adventures. 
Our Sunday Stories. 
Our Holiday Hours. 
Albums for Children. 

The Album for Home, School, 
and Play. Containing Stories by 
Popular Authors. Illustrated. 
My Own Album of Animals. 
With Full-page Illustrations. 



Indoors and Out. 
Some Farm Friends. 
Wandering Ways. 
Dumb Friends. 
Those Golden Sands. 
Little Mothers & their Children, 
Our Pretty Pets. 
Our Sehoolday Hours. 
Creatures Tame. 
Creatures Wild. 

3s. 6d. each. 

Picture Album of All Sorts. With 

Full-page Illustrations. 
The Chit-Chat Album. Illustrated 
throughout 



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" Wanted— a King " Series. Illustrated. 3s. 6d. each. 
Great Grandmamma. By Georgina M. Synge. 
Robin's Ride. By Ellinor Davenport Adams. 

Wanted— a King ; or, How Merle sei" the Nursery Rhymes to Rights. 
By Maggie Browne. AVith Original Designs by Harry Furniss. 
The World's Workers. A Series of New and Original Volumes. 
With Portraits printed on a tint as Frontispiece, is. each. 



Charles Haddon Spurge on. By 

G. HOLD EN PIKE. 

Dr. Arnold of Rugby. By Rose 
E. Selfe. 

The Earl of Shaftesbury. By 
Henry Frith. 

Sarah Robinson, Agnes Wes- 
ton, and Mrs. Meredith. By 

E. M. Tomkinson. 

Thomas A. Edison and Samuel 

F. B. Morse. By Dr. Denslow 
and J. Marsh Parker. 

Mrs. Somerville and Mary Car- 
penter. By Phyllis Browne. 
General Gordon. By the Rev. 

S. A. Swaine. 
Charles Dickens. By his Eldest 

Daughter. 
Sir Titus Salt and George 
Moore. By J. Burnley. 

David Livingstone. 



Florence Nightingale, Catherine 
Marsh, Frances Ridley Haver- 
gal, Mrs. Ranyard ("L. N. R."). 
By Lizzie Alldridge. 
Dr. Guthrie, Father Mathew, 
Elihu Burritt, George Livesey. 
By John W. Kirton, LL.D. 
Sir Henry Havelock and Colin 
Campbell Lord Clyde. By E. C. 
Phillips. 

Abraham Lincoln. By Ernest Foster. 
George Muller and Andrew Reed. 

By E. R. Pitman. 
Richard Cobden. By R. Gowing. 
Benjamin Franklin. By E. M. 

Tomkinson. 
Handel. By Eliza Clarke. TSwaine. 
Turner the Artist. By the Rev. S. A. 
George and Robert Stephenson. 

By C. L. Mateaux. 
By Robert Smiles. 



*#• The above Works {excluding Richard Cobden and Charles Haddon 
SPURGEON) can also be had Three in One Vol., cloth, gilt edges, 3^. 
Library of Wonders. Illustrated Gift-books for Boys. Paper, is.; 
cloth, is. 6d. 

Wonderful Adventures. | Wonders of Bodily Strength 

Wonderful Escapes. and Skill. 

Cassell's Eighteenpenny Story Books. Illustrated. 



Wee Willie Winkie. 
Ups and Downs of a Donkey's 
Life. 

Three Wee Ulster Lassies. 
Up the Ladder. 

Dick's Hero; and other Stories. 
The Chip Boy. 

Raggles, Baggies, and the 

Emperor. 
Roses from Thorns. 
Gift Books for Young People. 

Original Illustrations in each. 
The Boy Hunters of Kentucky. 

By Edward S.Ellis. 
Red Feather: a Tale of the 

American Frontier. By 

Edward S. Ellis. 
Seeking a City. 

Rhoda's Reward; or, "If 

Wishes were Horses.'* 
Jack Marston's Anchor. 
Frank's Life-Battle; or, The 

Three Friends. 
Fritters. By Sarah Pitt. 
The Two Hardeastles. By Made- 
line Bonavia Hunt. 



Cassell's Two-Shilling Story Books. Illustrated 



Faith's Father. 
By Land and Sea. 
The Young Berringtons. 
Jeff and Leff. 
Tom Morris's Error. 
Worth more than Gold. 
"Through Flood— Through Fire;" 

and other Stories. 
The Girl with the Golden Locks. 
Stories of the Olden Time. 

By Popular Authors. With Four 
Cloth gilt, is. 6d. each. 

Major Monk's Motto. By the Rev. 

F. Langbridge. 
Trixy. By Maggie Symington. 
Rags and Rainbows: A Story of 

Thanksgiving. 
Uncle William's Charges; or, The 

Broken Trust. 
Pretty Pink's Purpose; or, The 

Little Street Merchants. 
Tim Thomson's Trial. By George 

Weatherly. 
Ursula's S tumbling-Block. By Julia 

Goddard. 

Ruth's Life-Work. By the Rev. 
Joseph Johnson. 



Stories of the Tower. 
Mr. Burke's Nieces. 
May Cunningham's Trial. 
The Top of the Ladder : How to 

Reach it. 
Little Flotsam. 
Madge and Her Friends. 
The Children of the Court. 
Maid Marjory. 
Peggy, and other Tales. 



The Four Cats of the Tippertons. 
Marion's Two Homes. 
Little Folks' Sunday Book. 
Two Fourpenny Bits. 
Poor Nelly. 
Tom Heriot. 

Through Peril to Fortune. 
Aunt Tabitha's Waifs. 
In Mischief Again. 



Selections from Cassell % Company s Publications. 



Cheap Editions of Popular Volumes for Young People. Bound in 
cloth, gilt edges, 2s. 6d. each. 
In Quest of Gold; or, Under 

the Whanga Falls. 
On Board the Esn 



alda ; or, 
Martin Lei_h's Log. 
The Romance of Invention : 
Vignettes from the Annals 
of Industry and Science. 



For Queen and King. 
Esther West. 
Three Homes. 
Vv orking to Win. 
Perils Afloat and Brigand 
Ashore. 



The "Deerfoot" Series. By Edward S. Ellis. With Four full-page 
Illustrations in each Book. Cloth, bevelled boards, 2S. 6d. each. 
The Hunters 01 the Ozark. | The Camp in the Mountains 
J. he Last War Trail. 



The "Log Cabin" Series. By Edward S.Ellis. With Four Full- 
page Illustrations in each. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. each. 



The Lost Traii. 



Footprints in the Forest, 



Camp-Fire and Wigwam. 



The "Great River" Series. By Edward S. Ellis. 
Crown 8vo, cloth, bevelled boards, 2s. 6d. each. 

Down the Mississippi. Lost in the Wilds. 

Up the Tapajos ; or, Adventures in Brazil. 



Illustrated. 



The " Boy Pioneer " Series. By Edward S. Ellis. With Four Full- 
page Illustrations in each Book. Crown 8vo, cloth, 2s. 6d. each. 

Ned in the Woods. A Tale of I Ned on the River. A Tale of Indian 
Early Days in the West. River Warfare. 

Ned in the BiOCk House. A Story of Pioneer Life in Kentucky. 

The "World in Pictures." Illustrated throughout. 2s. 6d. each. 



A Bamble Bound France. 
All the Bussias. 
Chats about Germany. 
The Land of the Pyramids 
(Egypt). 



I The Eastern Wonderland (Japan). 

I Glimpses of South America. 

. Bound Africa. 

| The Land of Temples (India). 

' The Isles of the Pacific. 



Peeps into China. 



Half-Crown Story Books. 

Little Binges. 
Margaret's Enemy. 
Pen's Perplexities. 
Notable Shipwrecks. 
Go"' den Days. 

Wonders of Common Things. 



Truth will Out. 

Soldier and Patriot (George Wash- 
ington). 

The Young Man in the Battle of 

Life. By the Rev. Dr. Landels. 
At the South Pole. 



Books for the Little Ones. 

Pvhymes for the Young Folk. 
By William Allingham. Beautifully 
Illustrated. 3s. 6d. 

The History Scrap Bock. With 
nearly 1,000 Engravings. Cloth* 
7s. 6d. 



My Diary. With 12 Coloured Plates 

and 366 Woodcuts. Is. 
The Sunday Scrap Book. With 

Several Hundred Illustrations. Paper 

boards, 3s. 6d. ; cloth, gilt edges, 5s. 
The Old Fairy Tales. With Original 

Illustrations. Boards, Is.; cloth, 

Is. 6d. 



Cassell & Company's Complete Catalogue will be sent post 

free on application to 



CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, Ludgate Hill, London. 



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